Charlie Bone and the Tomb of Mahmet
by Ehren Hatten
Summary: Charlie Bone and friends are back in Bloors for the start of their second year, and third and fifth, in the case of his older companions. Magic strings, magnetic personalities, and pestilence living among them all! CHAPTER FIFTEEN UP!
1. Chapter One

A/N: aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'M BACK! XD

I finished reading Castle of Mirrors in one night, so YAY! I wrote down a bunch of shit to use, so I plan on trying to incorporate stuff from that book, while trying to keep my story MY STORY.

Bleh.

The hard part was coming up with something cool to do. I've been reading a book of Welsh tales, like myths and whatnot. The Bride of Flowers and the like. Well, I came across one that seemed like a cool idea, and since that's what Jenny Nimmo has been playing off of a bunch (I found Owain in one of the stories and Mathonwy in the Bride of Flowers.), I decided I should do the same. God bless my great grandparents for getting these books when they were in Wales oh so long ago. (And may they rest in peace in each other's arms)

SO! Without further adieu… (Don't ask how I came up with the name… I haven't a freakin' clue)

**_Charlie Bone_**

**_And the_**

**_Tomb of Mahmet_**

_Chapter One_

* * *

The Fall semester started sooner than expected, at least in Charlie's eyes. He sat up in the night, listening to the sounds coming through his window. He could see through the big chestnut tree in front of Number Nine Filbert Street straight to his friend's empty home and his new friend's home next to it.

Morgan's light was on in her room and she was writing a report from what he could see. Much like him, she waited until the last moment to do the report. His teachers' had given out homework for everyone to do during summer break. He had already finished his that evening, but he could see he wasn't the only one who had done the same as him.

He thought of his friend Billy Raven stuck at Bloors Academy for the summer. It made him shudder at doing that himself. He sighed. He would find a way to get the boy out of the school sooner or later.

He put his homework away and got ready for bed, snuggling into his bed as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Billy woke up when he heard a strange crash. He looked around before he looked out the window. Asa was limping out of the school as fast as he could in beast form, his shape changing rapidly as though he didn't know what to be until he became human and ran off into the woods.

Billy blinked at the sight through his glasses. He had never seen something like that happen before when Charlie and the others weren't there. He saw Manfred walk out, tall and peaky looking, putting his hands in his pockets.

Billy shuddered and ducked down onto his bed again. He wondered what had happened when he heard a small song being sung. It was much nicer than when Ada Isidore had been kept at the school. Ada couldn't keep a tune to save her life.

He smiled as he laid back on his bed, putting his glasses on the nightstand, and went to sleep to the beautiful song.

* * *

Manfred strode into the school, angry beyond words. Asa had done it, all right. He'd successfully managed to make his great-grandfather's experiment burn up with his damnable hands. They had been trying to bring back Borlath, but the whole thing was a mess on a table now because Asa put his hands on the bones when he'd tripped on Venetia's foot.

Of course, that wasn't to say Manfred didn't have anything to do with it. Thankfully, Asa was the one to take the fall and not him. He rubbed his face as he leaned against the wall. His powers were getting weaker, he could feel it.

He heard a song that made him want to close his ears to it forever. It wrenched his heart listening to it, forcing him against the wall and down to the floor. When it disappeared, he had trouble breathing. "Wha… what was that?" he said to the air.

Manfred Bloor stood up in shaky motions, trying to recover from the blow of the song. He had never had such a problem before!

He gathered himself up and walked back up to the office where the experiment had been held, ready to face his great-grandfather. He walked in to find the Yewbeam sisters gathering their things together silently. His great-grandfather was in a state of shock as he stared at the table of charred mess.

"Is that brat gone?" said Venetia in a harsh tone.

Manfred nodded and started trying to clean off the table. Ezekiel Bloor snarled and put out a gnarled hand on Manfred's. "Don't touch that, boy!" he snarled.

"We have to clean up this mess," said Manfred, trying to pry his great-grandfather's hand off of him.

Ezekiel let go of Manfred and whimpered as he looked on at the table sadly. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time and now that brat Pike had messed the whole thing up because he was clumsy.

Manfred sighed and went back to work, trying to clean up the desk.

* * *

The morning came and Charlie ran out of the door to catch the bus, his hair a mess and his cape flapping from his trunk. When he got there, he saw Morgan getting on, waving at him. "COME ON!" she called at him.

Fidelio stuck his head out of the window laughed. "Let me guess, forgot to brush your hair again?"

Charlie rolled his eyes and got up on the bus, fastening his cloak on. "Very funny," said Charlie as he sat down next to Fidelio.

"I saw Morgan running for the bus, so I told the driver to stay," said Fidelio. He shrugged as Morgan sat down behind them.

Fidelio Gunn was his best friend aside from Benjamin Brown, who lived across the street from him. However, Benjamin was over in Hong Kong with his detective parents.

Morgan MacGregor looked over the seat to see them, smiling brightly at them. "Morning, Charlie. Didn't think I'd see you out of your cave," she said in that slight Scottish accent she had.

Charlie looked up at her with a slightly annoyed look. "It's not a cave; it's a house with a very large chestnut tree in front of it."

"Yes, well, it's still dark and creepy. No wonder you're such a target," she grinned. Morgan was in fifth year this year, having come in late on her fourth year at Bloors last term. Charlie and Fidelio were both now in their second year, Fidelio a genius with instruments.

The bus stopped in the entrance gates to Bloors, the purple and green buses parked already. Charlie and Fidelio ran out of the bus, running up to the gates where there were other kids in purple and green cloaks, the blues mixing in with them.

On the first day of term, there was always an assembly. Fidelio and Morgan were in the orchestra, so they left to get to the theatre before everyone else arrived. He was walking to the coat room when he ran into someone he hadn't ever wanted to see again. "Manfred!"

"No talking in the halls, Bone," he growled. He looked almost sickly, like he hadn't eaten or slept very well for a month.

Charlie looked away from Manfred's eyes quickly, not wanting to be hypnotized on his first day back. There was a crash not far from them and Asa Pike was dusting himself off. He snarled at Ada Isidore, causing her to yelp and run off.

"Pike! I want you and Bone here to write out the lines of the rules a hundred times each, as you both have seemed to forgotten what the rules are," said Manfred in that low voice of his.

Asa Pike glared at Manfred with his yellow, wolfish eyes, though one looked like he'd been punched, before stalking off with his hands clenched. Manfred turned to Charlie with a sneer. "Bring them to my office before dinner." Then, he walked off.

Charlie groaned and banged his head on the rock wall. Did the man ever think there was a chance in the world Charlie could read his mind as to the location or whatever office he had? What was worse was Charlie now knew Manfred was going to be there for a lot longer if he had an office. That meant he was part of the staff.

Charlie walked into assembly, though he noticed someone walking out. She was walking out with a boy who had a row of crooked teeth that showed up bright when he smiled at Charlie. Charlie had to move away to avoid the strange feeling of a something forcing him to smile back at the boy.

He watched the boy and the girl go by, both wearing green cloaks, both looking as though they were in his year or just below in first year. Charlie frowned as he walked to a seat and sat down. He found on the floor a braided bracelet, the sort the girls would make for each other, made from many different colors.

He picked it up and looked at it. He felt a strange power in his hands as he stared at the bracelet. It felt as though his entire body was being energized for something, but he couldn't name it.

He slipped it on and he had to hold on to his ears to keep the sounds in the hall from making him crazy. There were so many, he couldn't name them all. It was as though everyone in the entire room was shouting through bull horns at one another. He pulled the bracelet off and threw it to the floor, looking at it as though it was going to bite him.

He was panting and sweating, eyes fixed on the bracelet before he saw his friend Emma Tolley walk over to him. She smiled, her blonde hair pulled into two braids as usual. "Hi, Charlie, what's wrong?"

Charlie looked to her and then the bracelet and back, trying to figure out what had happened. "N-nothing… nothing at all," he said, thinking it was his imagination. Then, he picked up the bracelet and stashed it in his pocket. He vowed he was going to tell her and the others about what had happened as soon as there was a break where they could all meet in a spot together.

* * *

Morgan was walking in the forest during the run when she caught sight of a boy with very crooked teeth smiling at her and talking to a girl with short red hair and big blue eyes. Morgan felt a strange pull from the boy and had to move away from him to make herself stop smiling at him.

When she got far enough away from the pair, she ran right into a white clad chest with a purple tie. She looked up and shot away from Asa. "You! I thought you were finally out of my hair, you evil—"

"Me? I'm in my last year, MacGregor, so leave it at that," Asa said with a snort. He had a black eye and a cut on his cheek, looking very much like he had been in a fight.

"What the hell happened to you?" Morgan grunted, not wanting to sound like she cared.

Asa glared at her and advanced. "It's none of your business," he sneered at her before walking away.

Morgan huffed in irritation before kicking a tree. Then, she saw something on the ground. It was one of those friendship bracelets that all the girls made for each other. She slipped it on, thinking how pretty the blue was with the silver. She immediately felt a strange sensation, as though her body was completely at ease. Then, she smiled and hit the ground, asleep.

Asa came back when he had heard the sound of someone falling, curious if he had an excuse to torment some little kid to make himself feel better. However, he saw Morgan on her back on the ground, blonde hair everywhere, including on her face.

He knelt down and regarded her, touching her face gently before moving her hair from her face with a couple of his long white fingers. Then, he reached down and picked her up, though with some effort, she was heavier than she looked, and took her back inside.


	2. Chapter Two

A/N: So anyway… ya'll enjoying the story? I'm trying to do things like they should be done. ' which is difficult cause I don't want to copy what goes on in the book.

Bleh. My hand looks like I beat someone up. It's mildly bruised and it has bandages over a scrape I got when I knocked my hand into the door of the Laundromat.

_Chapter Two_

* * *

Charlie found Olivia, her hair brown instead of the usual funky colors in it. She smiled at Charlie, though he was mildly surprised by her look. "What's going on, Livy?" he asked.

Emma giggled faintly. Olivia blushed and looked around. "I'm going to audition for that movie, like I told you I was going to before the end of term."

"Oh, but I thought that was during summer break," said Charlie, still mildly confused.

Emma shook her head. "She knew about it then, but she is auditioning this weekend on Saturday."

Charlie nodded. "I see. So, are you and Liv going to be at the Pets' Café on Saturday, if you finish before the evening," he said to Olivia, smiling.

Olivia nodded. "I'll try."

Charlie grinned and looked to Emma. "What about you, Em?"

Emma nodded and smiled brightly at Charlie before looking to his wrist. She remembered he had been wearing something on it beside his watch before she had tried to talk to him in the theatre.

Charlie blushed and put his hand into his pockets, looking around. "Where's Fidelio, do you know?"

Olivia nodded. "He's over there talking to Gabriel."

Charlie nodded. "Could you two stay here, for a moment?" Then, he jogged off toward Fidelio and their friend Gabriel Silk. However, the hunting horn sounded and he grunted in frustration. He needed all his friends together to tell them about the strange bracelet.

However, he felt strange in his stomach suddenly. He blinked as he felt like he was going to be sick all over the ground. He doubled up and landed on his knees as he panted. Fidelio and Gabriel were doing the same thing, though Gabriel looked the worse for wear.

"What's going on?" gasped Gabriel.

"Is something the matter?" asked a girlish voice. Charlie looked up from the ground into a heart shaped face littered with freckles and little pink lips. She had shoulder-length brown hair and wide light blue eyes as she looked down at him. "Are you all right?"

"CATHRINE PEST! GET INSIDE!" called Manfred.

The girl known as Cathrine Pest ran straight for the school, not stopping until she got inside. Charlie, Gabriel and Fidelio began to feel better when she left. They looked at one another in surprise at what had happened. "Was she…?" said Fidelio, coughing.

"She's endowed, but with what? Pestilence?" said Gabriel with a grunt.

"BONE! SILK! GUNN! INSIDE NOW!" called Manfred. They ran inside, still panting from their ordeal as well as having to run to get inside the school before Manfred decided to come out after them.

* * *

Charlie grunted when he was kicked out of his music lesson for not having his trumpet. It wasn't his fault he couldn't find it. He sighed and walked down the hallway to find where it could be.

He found himself in the music tower, looking at the sign on Mr. Pilgrim's door. "He's away?" He blinked as he looked into the empty room, anyway. No one was in there at the time, so he took a quick look before walking out. He wondered what happened to Mr. Pilgrim as he saw someone walking away wearing a purple cloak.

He blinked at the flap of cloak that went around the corner before wandering over to the art room. He felt Mr. MacGregor might be of some help since he was irrevocably on their side of this little battle between the endowed. He walked in and found Lysander Sage and Tancred Torrson, both grinned over at Charlie as they stopped working on their stone sculptures.

"What do you need, Charlie," said Tancred with a broad grin, yellow hair gelled to spiky perfection.

"My trumpet. I can't find it, so I thought I'd look here," he said.

"I saw some kid walking over there in the garden balcony with one," said Lysander, his hair in dreadlocks and decorated with beads that clinked together when he turned his head.

Charlie nodded and trotted past them. He found a group of kids working at a table, sketching various objects. Charlie found his trumpet in front of the boy with the crooked teeth and noticed he also had things like bits of paper and eraser stuck to him. Charlie felt that strange connection once again and grunted as he picked up the trumpet.

"Oi! That's my trumpet! I've been looking for it all over the place," said Charlie as he looked for his initials on the bell.

"No, it's mine," said the boy with a grin.

Mr. MacGregor looked up at Charlie and smiled at him. "Hello, Charlie. What's wrong?"

"I've been looking all over for my trumpet, sir. This boy had it," he said as he pointed to the initials.

The boy smiled at Mr. MacGregor, though Mr. MacGregor didn't smile back like Charlie somehow felt like doing. Mr. MacGregor, in fact, looked as though he was going to strangle the boy right there like Darth Vadar using the force.

"I was only pulling a little joke," said the boy, his grin fading slightly.

"I don't appreciate being lied to, Joshua," growled Mr. MacGregor before nodding to Charlie.

Charlie ran away as quickly as possible to get away from the boy named Joshua. When he was far enough away, he found that whatever was trying to connect him to Joshua had broken. He sighed as he walked back to his lesson only to find Mr. Paltry taking a coffee break. Mr. Paltry shooed him out and sent Charlie on his way.

Charlie groaned as he walked to his homeroom. The least he could do was get those lines done. He saw Corazon walking toward him, smiling sheepishly at him. "No sun… it's as cloudy as you all like it," she said, blushing darkly.

Charlie grinned at her. "Thanks, Corazon. Thank you." Then, he walked to homeroom to find the girl with the short brown hair and freckled face reading. She was wearing a blue cloak like he was and working on some homework, the teacher sleeping at his desk.

The teacher looked up at Charlie with one light grey eye and one brown eye. It was almost impossible to look at them at the same time. "And what are you doing here?"

"Ah… I have lines to do," said Charlie, unsure of how to act toward the man.

The man laughed. "On the first day back? My, my, I heard you got into trouble easily, but that's a first. Very well, sit down and be quiet." Then, the man went back to sleep.

Charlie attempted to sit as far away from the girl as possible. He still felt somewhat queasy sitting in the same room as her, but it wasn't as bad as before when she'd surprised them.

She looked over at Charlie with those light blue eyes and he gulped and looked away to his paper. He didn't want to run the gambit that she would make him sick the moment he looked at her for any length of time.

When it was time to leave, Charlie got up and walked out as quickly as possible. It was dinner time and he had to run to catch up with Fidelio. "Where have you been, Charlie?"

"Long story," said Charlie. He'd tell him later about the misadventure. They walked into the dining hall and sat down at the music table with all the other kids in blue.

Charlie looked around, but found that Morgan wasn't anywhere at the table, not even talking to Gabriel, and certainly wasn't with him and Fidelio. He knew she liked talking to Fidelio about violin concertos and the like.

He looked to Gabriel and whispered to him, "Have you seen Morgan around?"

Gabriel shook his head. "No, I didn't even see her at lunch."

"Neither did I," said Fidelio, "And she NEVER misses lunch or anytime there's food."

Charlie frowned as he ate his dinner, thankful for the Monday-back-feast that Cook always prepared the best. The only time Morgan had ever been absent was when Manfred had hypnotized her. He wondered if that was what had happened as he finished his dinner.

Dr. Bloor stood up and the children looked up at him. "We have some new students here. For those that are endowed, and you know who you are, you will report to the King's Room. The other endowed children will show you the way, or one of the prefects will." Charlie looked around as he noted about six different voices saying "Yes, Sir."

"Now, DISPERSE!" called Dr. Bloor before leaving with a swish of his black cloak.

Charlie waved to Fidelio before walking with Gabriel to the King's Room. He found little Billy Raven ahead of him and smiled at him. "Good evening, Billy," he said.

Billy looked to him, looking pale and scared. "Ah, hi, Charlie. Excuse me," he squeaked and ran off just as Charlie began getting a sick feeling in his stomach. The freckled girl was behind them and grinning at Charlie in a disconcerting manner.

He and Gabriel jogged into the King's Room and sat down. Once again, Morgan was absent. Cathrine Pest walked in and closed the door behind her, Manfred looking to her in an irritated fashion. "Pest! I told you to control that power of yours, and I mean it!" he growled.

Cathrine whimpered and nodded; the queasy feeling going away as she sat down at the end of the table. Billy was sitting across from her, looking as though he was trying to find a way to bolt from the room. Charlie sympathized.

"We have new students here among us. Here we have Idith and Inez Branko," said Manfred. There were two girls sitting beside him, both with blue eyes, china doll white skin and short black hair cropped just at their jaw line. They were twins all right, that is, if they were alive. They didn't move as their books in front of them flew off the table and landed in Charlie and Tancred's laps.

Tancred's sleeves shivered as his hair sparked. "Telekenisis," he grumbled.

"They're related to Zelda, so be nice," said Manfred with a withering glare at Tancred. He looked to Joshua and smiled at him, which was rather scary looking. "And we have Joshua Tilpin here. Rosemary Lace, " he said as he indicated the red haired girl who's head was bowed over her lap as she worked on something in her hands, "Cathrine Pest over there and Mary Dawson." He finished with pointing out a fair haired girl who was sitting near Dorcas Loom.

It was then Charlie noticed Asa was missing as well. He looked to Emma and Gabriel with raised eyebrows. Manfred glared at Charlie. "Bone, I told you to bring me your lines before dinner."

"Ah, sorry, Manfred," Charlie said, trying to avoid looking Manfred in the eye.

Manfred looked around. "Where are Pike and MacGregor? They're supposed to be here."

The door opened and Asa walked in, hands hidden under his cloak as he strolled over toward Dorcas and sat down. "Pike, where have you been?" grunted Manfred.

"I have been taking care of MacGregor, Manfred," he snorted, looking annoyed.

Charlie frowned and looked to Emma. She looked to him with wide eyes and then back to Asa as he pulled out his homework and started working on them. Manfred growled and sat down. Then rest of the evening went peaceably, however, the idea of Asa 'taking care' of Morgan still stuck in Charlie's mind.

He suddenly realized a note had been passed to him from toward Manfred. Charlie blinked and opened the note, reading the messy handwriting with some effort.

_**Bone,**_

_**MacGregor is in the Infirmary.**_

Charlie looked up and down the table to the people clustered around Manfred. No one was looking at him to see if he had read it. He frowned. What had Asa done to Morgan to make sure she ended up in the infirmary?

* * *

After study time was over, Charlie wound his way to the infirmary with Emma, Tancred and Lysander. He'd told them about the note, showing it to Lysander. "It's Pike, all right. He has the handwriting of a serial killer," grinned Lysander.

They walked into the infirmary to find Morgan on the bed asleep. The nurse wasn't in sight, so they walked over to her. "Morgan?" asked Emma as she prodded the older girl.

Morgan didn't wake. Tancred and Lysander tried their hands at waking her up, but it didn't work either. It was almost like sleeping beauty, except they were trying to avoid the kissing part like the plague. "I can't figure out what's wrong with her," said Lysander.

Emma frowned. "She sleeps like she's dead most of the time, but all we've done would have made her try to hit us."

"Not a bliven reaction from her," grunted Tancred.

Charlie looked Morgan over before he spotted something on her wrist next to her watch. It was a blue braided bracelet like the green one he had in his pocket. He took it off of her and felt a strange sleepy sensation when he held it in his hand. He threw it away from him with a grunt as Morgan blinked and yawned. "What's going on, lads?" she mumbled sleepily, stretching on the bed.

"You were very much asleep," said Lysander.

Morgan blinked. "What time is it?"

"About time to go to bed," said Emma.

Morgan shot off the bed, looking around. "The hell? What happened?"

Charlie frowned. Morgan had been wearing one of those strange bracelets as well. He wondered if Dorcas was behind it, since he knew she could bewitch clothing. Morgan grunted. "Well, I guess I get to go get to sleep," she grumbled, looking as though she could kill someone.

She left with Emma, leaving Charlie with Tancred and Lysander. "That was… unusual," said Lysander.

"Beyond weird," said Tancred.

"It was that bracelet she was wearing. The blue one. I think it made her fall asleep," said Charlie, working it out in his head.

"What do you mean?"

"I found this green bracelet in the theatre during assembly. When I put it on, I felt like my ears were going to bleed from the noise in there. I think they're bewitched," said Charlie as he pulled out the green bracelet. He could still feel power going into his hand as he held onto it. He shoved it back into his pocket after a moment, gritting his teeth. "It feels weird."

Lysander and Tancred looked to each other, Tancred's hair sparking. "We'll have to tell the others. We'll see you later, Charlie," they said as they walked out.

Charlie frowned as he looked to his hand where the green bracelet had been, then, he walked out of the infirmary.


	3. Chapter Three

A/N: So I see ya'll are sloooooowly coming in and reading. Now if only ya'll would review as well. -.-

I'm thinking of doing a music video for Troublesome Trio. I've got a song for it, but I need to do some sketches for it. . Too many things.

Anyway, I'll be putting it up on my deviant art archive, so when I get it done, look on there.

_Chapter Three_

* * *

Charlie once again didn't bring Manfred his lines, so he had detention. Charlie walked down the Music Tower corridor but didn't find anything resembling an office. Manfred had given him a riddle for directions, and Lysander had figured it out for him, but he still couldn't find it.

That is, until he saw the book case once again. He started moving the books about when he saw Asa come up behind him. "Not there," he said in a small voice. He pushed a knot in the wood and the whole book case swung open.

Charlie blinked at Asa. "Ah, thank you, Pike," he said in his confusion. He walked in and Asa walked in behind him. He put his lines on Manfred's desk and growled with that inhuman growl of his while running a hand through his red hair.

Charlie was about to say something when he saw the new teacher come in. "What are you lot doing here?" he grumbled.

Asa looked to the man with a sort of fear in his wolf-like eyes, color draining from his already pale face. Charlie looked to the man, "Er—sorry, sir."

"Tantalus Ebony, my boy," he said with an affectionate smile before glaring at them. "Now, I think it's time you walked out of here, now isn't it?"

Charlie nodded and walked out quickly, Asa behind him. "Not so fast, Pike," growled Mr. Ebony. Asa gave Charlie a fearful expression as Charlie ran away. He ran until he couldn't any long and leaned against the wall, panting. Tantalus Ebony was scary, but he couldn't place why. He shook his head and headed for his next class.

* * *

Morgan walked out of her music lesson and up the corridor for the music tower. She heard someone talking and a bit of a scuffle. She blinked and looked around before heading toward the voices quickly. She was nearly run into by one of the new teacher's her father had told her about, Mr. Ebony.

She blinked as the purple cloak disappeared around the corner, flapping at her. She walked in the direction he came from and found Asa Pike on the ground, white as a sheet.

She let out a gasp and ran over to him, patting his cheek and shaking him slightly. "Pike? Pike, are you all right? Pike!"

Asa mumbled and opened his yellow eyes, rolling them toward her. His black eye was healing, but it looked worse since he was so pale. "Are you all right?" she asked again, holding his head up right on her knee.

Asa squinted at her and tried to move away from her. "Hold still, you idiot," she grunted. "What happened to you?"

"Ebony… feel drained…"

Morgan grunted and lifted him up right, putting both her knees under him as she looked around. "You're heavier than I can carry," she grumbled. She looked up and saw Manfred coming toward them. "You have to help me get him to the hospital wing, sir," she said, remembering that Manfred was a teaching assistant now.

Manfred snorted and looked away from her before touching something on the bookcase beside them and walking into a hidden office. She grunted and pulled Asa up carefully. She glared at the passage ahead of her as she wrapped his arm around her shoulders and her own around his waist. "Lean on me… I'll help you to the infirmary," she said with a slight smile at Asa before concentrating on walking.

Asa simply moved the way she wanted him to, not really caring what was happening to him now. Ebony had done a number on him for sneaking around, screwing up the experiment, showing Charlie how to get into Manfred's office. He was in the way and he knew it. He simply didn't know why he was in their way when he had been their ally before, their little worker bee.

Then, he felt something soft against his back as he felt himself lie down on a bed. Morgan was looking over him, asking him something, but he couldn't hear her very well. Then, everything went black.

* * *

Charlie was outside during break, talking to Fidelio about what had happened to him when he had gone to take his lines to Manfred's office. "That doesn't sound right, Charlie," said Fidelio.

"I wonder what happened to Pike. He looked very scared when Mr. Ebony grabbed a hold of him," said Charlie, looking to the grass. He felt somewhat bad about leaving Asa to get punished, though he hardly knew why.

Fidelio nudged him and pointed toward Morgan. She was running toward them, white as a sheet. "Morgan? What's wrong?" asked Fidelio.

Morgan panted as she doubled over to catch her breath. "Asa… Pike… in the… infirmary.. took him there m'self.."

"What?" Charlie blinked at his friend as though she'd grown another head.

Morgan sat on the ground and ran a hand through her messy hair. She told them about what she'd heard and saw when she had gone to investigate the whole ordeal; her accent getting a little worse as she spoke, tired from all that running. "It' mor' than I can understan', lads."

Fidelio smirked faintly. "Did you know your accent gets worse when you get tired?" Morgan stuck her tongue out at him.

Charlie frowned. It sounded very familiar. "We should take a look at him," he said, still thinking.

When they walked inside, Charlie was bumped into by Ada. He blinked and looked down at her. Her eyes were like black holes in her head as she looked up at him. "He's here," she said. Then, she walked off, walking into Gabriel who gently caught her by the shoulders.

She suddenly seemed to snap out of whatever she was in and looked to Gabriel, face going red. "Ah! Excuse moi, Gabriel!" she said just before she took off like he was going to hurt her.

Gabriel was blushing a bit too and Charlie thought he had a funny look on his face. However, Ada's little episode struck a chord in him. Who was there?

They walked into the infirmary. The nurse wasn't around and there was only one person on a bed. Asa looked pale, his hair having lost some of its color. Charlie walked over and looked down on Asa. It was like Uncle Paton when he'd come home from Yewbeam castle.

"He's one of Manfred's lackies," he said. "Maybe we shouldn't do anything."

Morgan looked at Charlie as though she could kill him with her bare hands. "Does that matter? He's hurt and hurt by one of US, the ENDOWED. They might not do the same for us, but what does it say about us if we drop to their level?" She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, willing him to say something that would give her an excuse to hit him.

Charlie frowned and thought about the vervain. "We'll both be staying over on Saturday. I can ask if he can come home with me. He's so out of it, I don't think he'll notice."

Morgan nodded, knowing that Fidelio had vervain in his mother's garden. She vaguely remembered seeing Emma fly, but the whole incident involving her attacking them had to be told to her. She remembered none of it.

Charlie noted how Morgan was looking at Asa and frowned faintly, not sure how to take the look in her face. "He'll… be all right.. you know."

Morgan's ears went red and she shot a glare at Charlie. "And just what are you insinuating?"

"Nothing more than what is obvious. You're worried about a fellow endowed," said Fidelio, diffusing her sudden ire. "That's a good thing, from what I can tell."

Charlie blushed faintly and shrugged. "Yeah, that's all I was talking about."

"So don't worry, he'll be right as rain and tormenting small children in no time," grinned Fidelio.

She gave a half smile and nodded, walking out quickly. Charlie let out a breath he'd been holding. "I thought for sure she was going to try to kill me. She's right scary when she's angry." Fidelio nodded in agreement before they walked out themselves to get to the coat room for their cloaks.

* * *

Friday came quickly and left just as quickly, leaving Charlie without anyone to talk to other than a dazed Asa Pike. Billy wasn't even there. He recalled Billy telling him that he was being adopted, though he wondered if Billy's new family was very nice. Billy seemed terrified to be around Charlie now instead of happy to be with a new family that cared for him.

Charlie sat down on his bed, Saturday afternoon, and checked under his mattress for his wand. He blinked when he didn't feel it. He went through his things, even lifting up the mattress and tossing it off the bed. He found nothing.

Charlie sat down on his bed frame, in a state of shock. He'd brought his wand with him to keep it safe from his Grandma Bone, but now it wasn't safe anyway. He figured who had done it and he figured who it would go to.

He put his bed back in order as well as everything else and went down to lunch. Asa was walking in the hallway, somewhat aimlessly. When he ran into a wall, Charlie walked over and took a hold of his arm, pulling him to the dining hall. "This way, Pike," he said.

Asa mumbled something, though Charlie didn't stop to listen. Charlie was too into his own thoughts to care if Asa said "thank you" or "Get away from me".

Cook was clearing plates when she looked up at Charlie and Asa. "Oh, I didn't know you were here. I just finished giving the Bloors their lunch." She smiled and moved her head in the direction of the kitchen. "Come and eat, I still have some soup left, though the roast beef is all gone." Then, she walked to the kitchen.

Charlie pulled Asa into the kitchen and sat him down. Cook took a look at Asa when she set a bowl of some delicious looking soup in front of both of them. She opened his eyes into the light and checked his pulse, staring at him. "He's in a bad way. What happened to him? He looks as though the energy has been sapped right out of him."

"Don't know really. Morgan said she found him in front of Manfred's office and Mr. Ebony had been ready to punish him for something when I saw him before Morgan found him."

Cook sat down and frowned. "Mr. Tantalus Ebony? I saw him arrive and I didn't like the looks of him then. Still don't."

Asa ate the soup half heartedly, not really there in his mind. Cook helped him eat, saying he needed to get something into his stomach since he was working at half mast anyway.

"Cook… do you know what Billy's new family is like? Who they are?" asked Charlie when he'd had his bowl refilled.

Cook watched Asa carefully before answering. "Pest… I caught the name Pest, but I was shooed out of the room before I could catch anything."

Charlie looked at her, afraid suddenly. "We have a new student named Cathrine Pest. She's like pestilence from the four horsemen of the apocalypse!"

Cook looked like she was going to say something when Mr. Weedon, the gardener, appeared in the kitchen. "Bone, your aunt is here. You've got five minutes to get ready to leave."

Charlie blinked. "But it's only midafternoon. I'm supposed to go home in the evening."

"It's the only time someone would be able to come get you, Bone. Be grateful you going home at all. Now get ready," said Mr. Weedon before slamming the garden door shut.

Charlie looked to Asa. He had to get Asa ready as well, but Asa was too out of it to do it on his own. He pulled Asa up to his feet and pulled him to the senior boys' dorm. He found Asa's trunk, virtually untouched, and pulled it with him as he directed Asa downstairs to the main entrance. He found his own trunk already downstairs, Mr. Weedon picking it up.

"What are you doing, Charlie?" said Aunt Eustacia as she put on a pair of driving gloves.

Charlie recoiled from Eustacia. Aunt Eustacia was the world's WORST driver. If she was going to be taking him and Asa home, he would have to make out a living will for the both of them. Street lamps leaped out of the way for fear of being turned into scrap metal.

"Asa is going to stay the night at our home," said Charlie, trying to keep the fear in his voice from showing through.

"And you didn't even ask if you could bring a friend over? How selfish," she said in a clipped tone. However, she walked out the doors anyway. Mr. Weedon took Charlie's trunk as Charlie pulled Asa's behind him. They walked past the front gate where Aunt Eustacia's car was parked on the curb.

Charlie now wanted to be in the same state as Asa, because he would at least not know what was going on. Then, he helped Asa into the car and got in himself, strapping the both of them in as tightly as he could manage. Then, he prayed for a miracle.

Aunt Eustacia stopped on the curb in front of the three houses that belonged to the Yewbeam aunts; one was under construction, however. "You and your FRIEND can walk home. You've got legs, use them."

Charlie pulled out his trunk and Asa's and started walking away from Darkly Wynd as fast as possible. It wasn't so bad, though Charlie didn't like the fact that he had to redirect Asa every few minutes so that he didn't wander away.

When they reached Filbert Street, Charlie saw Morgan look out the window at him, waving. He had his hands full, so he couldn't wave back, so he nodded his head at her before walking into Number Nine. A chestnut fell right onto Asa's head, bouncing off and falling onto the ground as he walked in. Charlie sighed and closed the door just as Maisie came out of the kitchen. "Charlie! Oh! You brought a friend with you?"

"This… is Asa Pike," said Charlie as he pulled the trunks over to the sitting room.

Grandma Jones had heard about Asa Pike and knew he was the one that had attacked Runner Bean when they were trying to protect the metal box from the Bloors. "Why did you bring HIM here?"

Asa looked to Maisie and then leaned against the wall, sliding down as he blacked out. "He's in a bad way, Maisie. I think someone got to him."

Maisie hesitated for a moment before helping Charlie to pick him up off the floor and help him over to the couch. "Oh dear, it's like Paton all over again."

Charlie's face was stricken with horror. That was what he was trying to remember. Was Yorath Yewbeam at Bloors?

Charlie sat down for a snack in the kitchen when he heard Paton come in. He pulled off his sunglasses and grinned at him before he looked into the sitting room. "What the—what is HE doing here?" said Paton in disbelief, the lights in the room, thankfully, were off.

Charlie explained what was happening and Paton looked like he was going to faint right there. That evening, Charlie got to explain things to his mother before helping Asa up to his room and setting him up on the floor. Then, he went to sleep himself after studying a bit, musing to himself how his life never seemed to go well.


	4. Chapter Four

A/N: I'd like to thank a few people on the CB board for giving me some feedback on this story. Now if only the rest of you would do so on HERE. -.-

_Chapter Four_

* * *

Charlie woke up the next morning with a start. He looked down to see Asa sleeping peacefully on the floor next to his bed. "So it wasn't a dream. He's here, and I have to help him."

He sighed and got out of bed. "Just my luck, I get to take of the one bloke who is more likely to kill me as soon as look at me."

Asa moved on the mat Charlie had made for him. He turned over onto his stomach and mumbled, still in dream land. "Messy haired…blonde…freak…I want to bite you." He grinned and bit the pillow, slobbering on it as he seemed to be chewing on it.

Charlie made a face at the boy on the floor. He wanted to eat Morgan? He kicked Asa in the ribcage to make him stop chewing on his pillow. Asa gave a halfhearted yelp of pain and curled up on the ground. Panting, he looked up at Charlie blearily. "You… Bone… what…?"

Charlie rolled his eyes and went about getting dressed. "I'm taking you to Fidelio's home. If you so much as tell the Bloors what we're going to do that will HELP you, I'll set Morgan on you. She's been wanting a chance to beat you senseless."

Asa blinked up at Charlie. "Morgan… wants… me?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Asa. "Yeah, for breakfast."

"I'd like to have breakfast," said Asa, smiling blearily at Charlie.

Charlie felt like he was in a theatrical comedy. "We'll get breakfast; just get dressed in something other than your school uniform. Your trunk is right there next to mine."

"Your trunk is mine?"

Charlie really felt like tossing Asa at Morgan right then and there. He walked over to Asa's trunk and randomly pulled out a shirt, a pair of jeans, and underwear and socks. Then, he slammed the trunk closed and tossed the things at Asa. "Now, get dressed."

Charlie walked out without another word, having lost his patience quickly. He walked down to the kitchen where Maisie was fixing breakfast. "When are your friends going to be here?" asked his mother.

"Not too long from now," he said as she dove into his eggs and sausage. There was a thump as someone seemed to be attempting to use the stairs. Charlie's mother walked out of the kitchen and gasped. Charlie rubbed his head, knowing exactly who was coming down.

"Are you all right? You took a pretty bad fall," said his mother. Her voice was getting closer to the door. She opened it and Asa walked in wearing a black T-shirt and jeans.

Not long after breakfast, which Asa had wolfed down despite the fact he clearly had little to no brain activity, there was a phone call. Charlie heard Fidelio on the other side and grinned. "We'll be over in a little while. Mum is driving."

Then, there was a knock at the door. Charlie opened the door to see Morgan standing there with her hair in pigtails and wearing a skirt that went just above her knees. Charlie let her in as Asa came walking out of the kitchen. "Friend?" he said in a faraway voice.

Charlie only looked to Asa when there was some sort of flicker in Asa's eyes and a flash of a toothy grin before Asa practically launched himself at Morgan. Charlie was thrown out of the way by Morgan as Asa landed on her, both tumbling to the floor. He had her arms pinned above her head and he was biting her on the neck. "Ah! Get off of me!"

Charlie grabbed Asa's shirt collar and pulled back on him, pulling Asa off of Morgan by default of choking hazard. Morgan scooted as far away from Asa as she could manage, holding her neck as she stared at him, eyes wide in fear. There was no blood, or any damage for that matter, but it had surprised her. He had been almost gentle, in fact!

Asa once again went out of it, sinking against the couch in a sort of stupor as he stared into space. Charlie ran over to Morgan and pulled at her hand. "Here, let me look," he said as Maisie came running in with a frying pan.

"What's he done!" Maisie gasped, looking to the terrified Morgan and the concerned Charlie.

"He tackled her and started biting her neck!" said Charlie.

Morgan went red and pulled away from Charlie. "I'm fine! Leave me alone!"

Maisie let out a grunt of indignation. "How dare he; the wretch! He should be gentler to girls!" She threw her hands up in frustration and walked back into the kitchen.

The doorbell rang not long after that and Fidelio was at the door. They piled into the car, Asa being stuffed, more like, and then were off to the Gunn house. The house wasn't as noisy as it usually was when Fidelio's brothers and sisters were there. Instead, the only people there were Fidelio, Mrs. Gunn, Morgan, Emma and Asa.

"I've made some tea with that special herb you gave me, Charlie. And I also chopped up some of it for a bath, like I did for you Uncle." She smiled brightly at him as she almost sang what she was saying to him. "I hope your friend feels better soon. He looks like he's getting worse."

Charlie frowned and looked to a very pale Asa. She was right. He looked like he was turning white, which meant his powers were going away quickly. Charlie looked to his friends. "We have to get him up to the bath. Anyone want to do it? I've rather had my fill of dealing with him for one day."

Fidelio frowned. "He's too big for me and Emma's a girl, so she couldn't help him."

"What? And I'm not? Thanks a lot, Fido," grunted Morgan.

Fidelio gave her a sheepish smile. "No offense, but you are able to deal with him normally, right?"

Morgan went bright red. "Eeeh."

"He attacked Morgan earlier—"

"I'll do it." Morgan interrupted Charlie, walking over to Asa quickly before there could be any argument. She wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled him up the stairs. "Up here, right, Ma'am?" she called from the stairwell.

"Yes!" yelled Mrs. Gunn from the kitchen as she popped her head out.

Charlie ran up behind Morgan. "You forgot these, Morgan." However, she didn't seem to have a hand available, so he walked behind her to the bathroom and set the teacup and bowl of minced vervain. After seeing Morgan was all right putting Asa on the toilet seat, he ran down the stairs where his friends were watching TV.

Morgan, however, got to undress Asa. She decided turning on the bath was a better plan than dwelling on trying to undress her arch nemesis. As she was filling the tub, she spread the vervain in the water, letting it soak into the water, turning it a sort of green color.

She felt a hand touch her hair and looked over to see Asa awake again, though there didn't seem to be much going on in his head. "Asa? Pike, you need to undress yourself and get into the tub. Can you do that on your own? Oh, you need to drink this as well."

Asa gazed at her with those vacant yellow eyes. She bit her lip as she looked around desperately. The bath filled up and the steam from it made her somewhat dizzy. She looked to Asa once again and pulled off his clothes carefully, thankful there wasn't much to pull off, at least. She tried to keep her gaze away from Asa's male body parts as she helped him into the water.

The fact that the water was clear didn't help her peace of mind either. She took the teacup and sat down on the edge of the bath, helping Asa drink the concoction. However, when it was gone, she felt tired; heaviness was spreading through the air. This was true magic.

She didn't care that she was sliding slowly against the wall of the shower. All she saw was fading images as everything went black.

* * *

Charlie woke up, yawning and stretching. It had happened again. The vervain had done its work and made everyone fall asleep at the same time. He looked to Emma lying against him with her hair covering part of her face. He blushed faintly and pulled her hair from her face as she stirred. "Mmmm, Charlie? Did it work?" she mumbled as she sat up and yawned.

"I… don't know." He looked to the stairwell and contemplated going up to check for himself. However, the prospect of seeing Asa naked wasn't something he was thrilled to see.

Fidelio gave a snort and sat up from the floor. "Charlie? Em? Is it done?"

"Don't know," said Emma.

* * *

Morgan felt cool water all over her arm. In fact, she felt cool water in her hair as well as her arm in it. She felt someone shifting against her side, like someone's head. She frowned as she slowly woke up. Strange smelling water filled her senses as he head went further into the water. She was slipping from her perch, right into the water!

Water was all around her, her clothes were wet and she couldn't breathe much less move on her own. A pair of arms wrapped around her and lifted her up out of the water, air coming back into her lungs as she gasped.

"Are you all right, MacGregor?" said a familiar voice. She coughed as she tried to pull her bangs from her face. A hand helped her, a very warm hand, though wet, and pulled her hair from her mouth and face for her. She saw yellow eyes and wet red hair. Asa Pike was grinning at her oddly.

She felt her cheeks heat as she dumbly tried to move away from him, but found she was still in the tub with him. Then, that realization hit her. She was in the tub… with HIM.

She scrambled to get out of the tub, but only managed to make Asa laugh. "I've got you, MacGregor. I don't think I'll let you go now. I feel very good now and think playing with you would make me feel even better."

She dug her nails into her palm and watched Asa's face screw up in pain. He clenched his teeth and growled. "Stop that, I'm not doing anything indecent to you, brat, so stop!"

She stopped, his arms were still around her own, pinning them to her sides. Her body was pressed against him in a most disconcerting fashion, as well. Thankfully, there was a knock on the door and Asa let go of Morgan. It was either that, or he would be dragged out by her.

"Morgan, is everything all right?" asked Charlie from the other side of the door.

"Yes, everything is all right. I slipped into the tub is all. I'm wet, so you might want to leave. I'll be down in a few minutes."

Charlie raised an eyebrow and looked at the door. She slipped into the tub? With Asa? The thought made him blush, so he dismissed it as anything intentional. Hopefully, Asa wasn't awake yet. The poor girl would never hear the end of it.

Unfortunately, for Morgan, he was awake, very much so, in fact. Moran dried herself off quickly and threw the towel at him. "Get dressed and come down, Pike. And be nice to Mrs. Gunn, or I'll turn you inside out," she grunted. Then, she left hurriedly, blushing madly.

Morgan told the others what had happened, though leaving out the fact that she had somewhat enjoyed it, and sat down in a chair that wouldn't soak up water so much. She looked up the stairs in time to see Asa walking down in that tight black T-shirt and jeans. His hair seemed to be clean, as well. Had he done a bit of scrubbing before coming down?

Mrs. Gunn walked in, smiling brightly as usual. "Oh my, you are rather handsome, aren't you? We're about to have lunch. All of you have a seat, I'll bring it out in a little bit," she said before turning back into the kitchen.

Morgan was blushing so horribly, she could have made the room heat up just from being in it. As they sat down, Charlie noticed how Asa seemed a little more together than usual. In fact, he was positively glowing, much like Uncle Paton had been like when he'd emerged from the bathroom.

"This doesn't mean we're friends," said Charlie as he glared at the boy. "It just means we don't drop to your level when dealing with you."

Asa shrugged. Morgan glared at him. "Are you going to tell the Bloors about all this?"

Asa shot her a look that made electricity go through her. "No."

Morgan's heart was thumping hard in her chest as she looked at him with wide eyes. Fidelio gave a sheepish grin. "You know, I really don't like the smell of that stuff. I'm glad we don't use it more often." Emma patted Fidelio on the shoulder at his attempt to diffuse the situation.

Not long after eating, Asa was on his way, walking instead of letting Mrs. Gunn take him home. He told her that he needed to think and that he didn't live very far away, so walking was fine for him. Then, Charlie said goodbye to Fidelio and Emma and walked home with Morgan.

"Do you think he'll tell?" asked Morgan as she looked to her own house.

"You're asking me?" Charlie raised his eyebrows at her. He shook his head. "I haven't the foggiest idea if he will or not."

Morgan nodded and said goodbye to Charlie before walking into her own home, leaving Charlie to go inside his home to tell Maisie about the entire event.


	5. Chapter Five

**_A/N: thank you all for reviewing, especially OliviaVertigo on the CB board. -.- as for the rest of you lot, either get workin' on those reviews or you're going to face an angry and vindictive me. XD as in… no story… well.. if I feel like doing that._**

**_: puts new BSB CD on random:_**

_Chapter Five_

* * *

Going to school wasn't a problem, however, Charlie had to bring Asa's trunk since he forgot it at Charlie's house. Charlie felt like handing Asa over to Morgan right then and there if he could find him. However, Morgan helped get Asa's trunk onto the bus and then his trunk as well.

She was silent when she sat down; quite the opposite of what she usually was when she was on the bus with him, Fidelio and Gabriel. Gabriel prodded her in the side. "Are you all right, Morgan?" he asked the older girl.

"She's been through a bit," said Fidelio, smiling at Morgan pleasantly. Charlie told Gabriel about what had happened, including Morgan telling him that she'd slipped into the tub by accident. Morgan's cheeks went bright red at that.

"Do you HAVE to tell them that?" she growled at Charlie.

"Sorry," he mumbled and turned back around in his seat.

They approached the school and got off the bus with everyone else. Charlie spotted the red haired Rosemary Lace heading for the art cloak room with Joshua Tilpin next to her. He saw something on the ground next to him and picked it up. It was a light blue and white friendship bracelet string that hadn't been tied together yet to make a bracelet.

He held it in his hand and felt a strange sensation. His body felt lighter and his heart gave a strange thump in his chest. He walked toward the blue cloak room and found he was already there without trying. Everyone else was behind him. He then found himself in the coatroom and put the string into his pocket. Time seemed to go back to normal, his body going back to normal as well. He frowned as he thought. The string had made him faster than everyone, like he stepped outside of time and went to his destination, going back into time when he put the thing in his pocket.

Fidelio ran in, panting as he doubled over on his knees. "What… what was that! How did you run so fast?"

Charlie showed him the string and told him about what had happened when he wrapped it around his hand. Fidelio looked like it was making his head spin. "You endowed, I swear… you'll be the death of me one of these days. I had to run as hard as I could to get over here before Manfred and Asa."

Just then, Manfred walked in. "Bone! What were you trying to pull back there!"

Charlie shrugged. "I was racing Fidelio."

"No, running in the halls, Bone, same goes for you too, Gunn!" He grunted and stalked out, panting slightly.

Fidelio sighed as he put his cloak up. "I hope he doesn't give me detention."

Charlie felt bad now, since he hadn't intended for Fidelio to get trouble as well. It was all right if HE got in trouble, but his friend was another matter. "Don't worry about it," said Fidelio, reading his friend's concerned expression. "If we do get detention, at least I'll keep you company while we're stuck here with the Bloors."

Charlie smiled at his friend and they walked out into the field for the morning run.

* * *

Morgan was outside alone in the woods. She was hiding in the ruins, really. She didn't want to talk to her friends, since Charlie would only tell them about the whole embarrassing episode.

Well, she hadn't told him everything, but she wished she hadn't told him about slipping in the tub. That alone made her feel the most uneasy. She could still feel Asa holding her against him. It was scary and fascinating all at once how that made her feel.

She made a rock fall down the entrance hallway, listening to it bounce off the stone walkway before making a stop not far from her. She saw a pair of shoes in her vision and looked up the long legs of Asa Pike as he stood in front of her. "Leave me alone, Pike," she said.

"And what happened to that spark, MacGregor? Lose it so quickly?" Asa grinned at her in an animalistic way.

"You're still here," she said as she stood up and glared at him.

Asa grinned evilly at her and walked closer toward her. He felt her phantom hands close around his lapels and then he was on his back in an instant. He coughed and got back up. "That isn't nice, Morgan."

"Who said I was being nice! I don't want you anywhere near me!" She had her hands up, ready to make him pay for every move he made toward her.

He moved toward her quickly this time, lashing a hand out to grab her wrist, however, he landed on his back again and rolled. He felt a couple of ribs were broken from the fall on the rock she'd made move earlier. He coughed as he shakily got onto his feet again, holding his side in pain.

"Don't… ever… call me Morgan, Pike. We're not friends," she said in a rough voice. She was shaking with adrenaline, her body trembling as she watched him gaze at her with those yellow eyes.

"Friends? No… I wouldn't call us that." He grinned faintly at her, eyes dancing even though he was in pain. "I'd say we were getting to be more than that very quickly."

Then, he turned and walked out the way he came. Morgan shivered as she leaned against the wall. "More? How can we be more when we haven't even reached the bottom level?"

She looked up at the ceiling with a look of fear in her eyes. "I don't think I want to be more, either."

* * *

Olivia skirted around corners, avoiding all her friends. She had even taken to looking rather drab, not a speck of decoration on her. Her hair was even unwashed looking. It was Charlie that spotted this. He saw her walking away into the woods during break on Wednesday, looking agitated and nervous. He frowned and trotted after her. "Livy!" he called to her.

She turned around to see him coming and started running. Charlie jumped up his pace and then remembered the string in his pocket. He pulled it out and wrapped it around his hand, finding himself in front of her, almost ahead of her before he pulled the thing off and stuffed it back in his pocket.

Olivia panted as she shied away from him. "Go away!"

"Liv, what's wrong? You've been avoiding everyone since Monday," said Charlie as he looked to his friend.

Olivia looked like she was going to cry. "Leave me alone!"

She started to run away again, but Charlie got in her way. "Livy! What is wrong? Did you get the audition?"

Olivia started crying right there, almost hysterical. "NO! I didn't!" When he asked about it, she launched into a story about her talking to some girl who was already a teenage, but looked younger than her getting the part instead of her. Charlie looked around desperately when she hugged him and started crying into his shirt. "And the worst part is I yelled at mum! She was trying to cheer me up, but I yelled at her that I couldn't even get the part because SHE was so famous!"

Charlie patted Olivia on the shoulder and pulled her off of him. "Hey, it's not so bad, y'know? You can make up with your mum when you get back home, right?"

Olivia sniffled and nodded. Charlie smiled at her and put his hands back into his pockets. "Good, then come back to us, Livy. Fidelio and Emma are worried about you."

Olivia nodded and wiped her face, though she still looked like misery. Charlie wanted to do something to cheer her up back to being Olivia Vertigo again, but he didn't know what to do. Suddenly, he felt like he was on fire.

He leaned against the tree next to him, panting as he slid down. Olivia gasped and stared at him. "Charlie! Are you all right?"

"I feel like… I'm on fire! I'm hot," he groaned. He was sweating and shaking as he crawled on his knees toward the ruins

On the cold stone floor on the entrance to the ruins, he laid his hot head down, feeling steam come up from his face. He really was burning up! Olivia was behind him, trying to help him, but she shot back when she touched him. "Ah! You really are on fire!" she gasped.

Charlie groaned as he rolled onto his back and stared up at the forest canopy. Almost as soon as it had started, the burning stopped and he was left panting on the cold stone covered floor on the entrance.

Olivia watched him carefully. "Are you all right?"

"I'm not burning anymore, but now I feel as though something is missing." Had his wand been burned? Manfred wouldn't be able to use it so he would get rid of it as quickly as possible. Maybe that was why he suddenly started burning himself.

He got to his feet warily and wobbled slightly as he walked. The hunting horn sounded for everyone to get back inside. "Time for class," he said. Olivia nodded and walked behind him as they went back to the castle. He saw something flutter in the corner of his eye as he walked in the garden. It disappeared as soon as he moved his gaze toward the direction he had seen it.

He ran right into Cathrine Pest and Billy. The nausea washed over him like a waved and it seemed to happen to Olivia as well because he saw her double over onto her knees. Billy looked pale and smaller than usual. Quite frankly, Charlie wondered how the poor boy could even stand to be around her.

Cathrine smirked at them. "I'm sorry, is something the matter?" she said in an unconvincingly innocent tone.

Charlie groaned and felt like he was going to vomit into the grass. However, he heard someone walk up behind them. "Being a pest, Pest?" snorted a familiar tone.

Cathrine looked up at Asa and went bright red. "Go away, Pike!"

Asa lifted Olivia and Charlie by the backs of their shirts. "Aren't you going to be late for class, Pest?" he said in a tired voice. Charlie saw that Asa was having as much difficulty as he and Olivia was having; his jaw was clenched and he had sweat forming on his forehead. Why was Asa Pike helping them?

Cathrine grunted and grabbed Billy's hand roughly, walking away quickly. Asa set Olivia and Charlie on the ground and jammed his hands into his pockets as he walked away. Charlie ran up behind him, still recovering from Cathrine's onslaught. "Pike! Asa, why did you help us?"

Asa stopped, but he didn't turn. He gave a snort and shook his head. "Don't really know. Get to class, Bone." Then, he walked off, leaving Charlie staring at his back.

* * *

Charlie told the others about what had happened with Asa and Cathrine, leaving out Olivia's outburst, so she could tell the others when she was ready. "Asa… Asa Pike? Are you sure you're talking THE Asa Pike?" said Fidelio with his eyebrows raised almost to his hairline.

Morgan was silent as she listened. Both Morgan and Olivia were acting unusual, the complete opposite of what they normally were. Both were normally chattering away, Olivia dressed lavishly and a lot of the times weirdly, Morgan being just plain cheerful. Now, Olivia looked miserable and nervous while Morgan was contemplative and looked more than a little afraid to speak what was on her mind. She was especially quiet since Charlie talked about Asa rescuing them.

When it was time to go into the King's Room, she walked ahead of Charlie, staying as far away from him as possible. However, he noticed that Asa brushed right past him just as quickly. He looked to Gabriel with a raised eyebrow. "What is going on, do you suppose?" he said.

Gabriel watched them thoughtfully, brown floppy hair getting in his eyes. Ada came up behind him and smiled at him. "Gabriel! Would you sit with me in there tonight?" Gabriel went pink and nodded quickly as he stared at her. She giggled and hopped up the steps to bounce into the King's Room.

"It looks like someone likes you," grinned Charlie, watching his friend fumble and twitter until he finally left in a bit of a huff right into the King's Room.

Charlie sat down where he usually sat, right in front of the portrait of the Red King. The wide, pleasant smile on the man's earth colored features gave him a warmth that Charlie appreciated, even if he couldn't get past what ever prevented him getting into the portrait.

Charlie also noticed Morgan and Asa were sitting across from each other as usual. Morgan looked even more nervous and stiff than she had earlier. She deliberately stared at her notes when Asa started up with her in his usual manner.

He kicked her shin gently and grinned at her as he looked up from his paper. He was working for a reaction from her, wanting her to get angry at him. At least then she would stop being so quiet. As much as Charlie thought Asa was being mean to her, right now, he felt what he was doing was the correct move. The only way to snap Morgan back into action would be to get her irritated, and Asa was dumb enough to suffer the consequences himself.

Morgan grunted and stiffened a little more, deliberately ignoring Asa. Manfred saw the action and frowned. "Pike, stop being a bother and do your work."

Asa looked to Manfred. "I'm not doing anything wrong, Manfred. I'm doing my work, see?" He held up his paper and grinned evilly at the older boy.

Manfred growled. "Do… your… work… Pike," he ground out before going back to grading papers.

Things were quiet for a little bit before Asa kicked Morgan's shin again. She grunted and glared at him. Charlie swore he could see a strange red glow around her as she trembled slightly. "Stop that, Pike," she growled.

Asa grinned at her nastily. "Make me," he challenged then, added in a softer tone, "I want you to."

Morgan's eyes went wide as her cheeks went red and she immediately buried herself in work. "Pike! I told you to stop being a bother. If I have to warn you again, both you AND MacGregor are staying here on Saturday for detention!"

A pencil hit Morgan's head from the direction of one of the Branko girls. That seemed to do it, and it wasn't Asa's fault either. Charlie saw the red glow around Morgan flash a little brighter in the dim room as she turned her gaze very slowly toward the twins. "Which one of you did that?" she said in a calm tone. It was closer to being the calm before the storm than an actual rational tone.

Another pencil shot at Morgan. She put up a hand and it was caught in her phantom hand, the other coming up in front of her as she brought both fists up. The girls' eyes widened in shock. Apparently, they didn't know they had another telekinesis user among them that wasn't directly related to them.

"Leave me alone, or else these will be you," she growled as the pencils suddenly broke in half and fell to the floor.

Asa grinned. "Looks as though she has you there, girls," he said to them with a snarky grin on his pale face.

"PIKE! MACGREGOR! DETENTION!" growled Manfred.

For the first time, both Asa and Morgan grinned at each other, a silent well done. Then, for the rest of the night, they were quiet and did as they were told.


	6. Chapter Six

**_A/N: beats anyone else want to have a go at for constantly trying to eat my postings? -.-;;_**

**_:listens to BSB CD set on random:_**

**_A little Morgan/Asa stuff for ya'll to love on. XD_**

_Chapter Six_

* * *

The time to go home came and Charlie found himself once again facing staying at the academy for detention because, for some reason, his homework had disappeared and reappeared in the art room. Unfortunately, by the time Emma had given it to him, it was too late and he had detention.

He had an idea as to who had taken it, too. He didn't know exactly what Joshua's power was, but it seemed akin to magnetism, and he was using it on Charlie.

Charlie watched as everyone ran out to the buses, including Billy Raven, though he was being pulled along by Cathrine Pest. He was being kept against his will, he could tell. Cathrine wouldn't ever leave his side and the way he tried to stay away from her told him that Billy didn't like Cathrine anymore than everyone else. There was something inherently repugnant in Cathrine, and it had nothing to do with her power of pestilence. She looked sweet and nice, but her personality showed through as cunning and nasty.

Charlie sighed and walked down to dinner. He saw Morgan sitting uncomfortably at the music table as she stared and picked at the wood. He sat down in front of her and smiled at her, trying to cheer her up a bit.

Morgan looked to him with those big blue eyes. "What do you think of Asa?" she said softly.

Charlie blinked. He had never been asked about his opinion on the people that regularly tried to torment him and his friends. However, Asa seemed to be trying to do things against Manfred and his lot. It was as though he was trying desperately to redeem himself while rebelling against the very people who he had once worshipped.

"He… seems all right… for now. I don't trust him very much, though. Why?"

Morgan stared at the table as the Bloors walked in. Mr. MacGregor was sitting with them, probably there because his daughter was. Mr. MacGregor smiled broadly at Charlie. "Trying to chat up m'daughter, are ye, laddy?" Charlie blushed as Mr. MacGregor chuckled.

However, Asa was glaring at Charlie as he walked in, almost like he was ready to turn into the beast and eat him right there. He sat down at the music table since there were only three of them there, right next to Morgan.

Morgan leaned a bit away from Asa, as he almost seemed like he was leaning over her. Charlie raised his eyebrows at Asa and then at Morgan. He saw the dark expression on Mr. MacGregor's face and instantly wanted to be as far away from Asa Pike as possible. That look said very much "get away from my daughter" with multiple exclamation points.

Cook came out and set out their dishes in front of them, her kitchen help giving the Bloors and Mr. MacGregor their meals. She winked at Charlie and smiled before walking back into the kitchen to prepare the next courses for eating.

Charlie was beginning to wonder if there was going to be a next course as he watched Asa start up with Morgan again. It started up with Asa brushing his foot against hers rather obviously. Morgan jumped and twitched, glared at Asa and then went back to eating, though in an irritated fashion.

He pulled his elbow back in just the right angle to hit her in the side, where she was quite ticklish. She jumped and nearly fell off her seat, glaring at him in surprise and more than a little fear. "Stop that!"

Asa blinked those yellow wolf eyes at Morgan. "Stop what?"

"Quiet in the hall, Pike… MacGregor," growled Dr. Bloor.

"Why quiet? Why can't the children talk? Why can't we for that matter? It isn't as though talking will cause a major disruption," said Mr. MacGregor.

Dr. Bloor glared at Mr. MacGregor in a more disturbing fashion, however, Charlie also the fear of Mr. MacGregor in his stiff position. Mr. MacGregor had power over Dr. Bloor, though he didn't use it. To do so would take him down to the Bloors' level and Mr. MacGregor was above that. However, he'd shown Dr. Bloor just how nasty he could be when Manfred had hypnotized Morgan.

Asa stretched, in a very old and over used move, and brought a hand down on Morgan's back in a swift movement. He had touched her no less. Charlie watched as a faint red glow started up around Morgan, her left eye twitching slightly as she struggled to contain herself. "I said… stop it… Pike," she hissed through her teeth.

Dinner was over right then. Charlie and Morgan hurried up to the King's Room quickly as Asa grinned and walked behind them at a casual pace. Morgan sat across from Charlie as far away from Asa as possible.

Manfred glared at Asa from his seat at the head of the long table. It was as though it wasn't enough that Manfred clearly despised the boy, but he wanted to grind it into his head that he was no longer tolerated.

Charlie passed a note to Morgan.

_Has he been bothering you?_

Morgan went red and wrote a quick response, making it move over to him with her phantom hand.

_Yes._

Charlie frowned. He glared down at the table at Asa, receiving a grin from the red haired boy before turning his gaze back to Morgan. He wrote a question on the note and she pulled it back to her.

_What has he done to you?_

Morgan glared at Charlie and wrote out a terse answer.

_Leave me alone. It's none of your business!_

Charlie wanted to argue, but arguing with Morgan was a bit like poking a sleeping tiger with a stick. He wasn't all too certain she wouldn't hurt him with that power of hers if she got angry at him. As far as he'd seen, when she got angry at anyone, she tended to put herself into solitary confinement for a while. However, he had also seen what she could do to someone when she finally blew up.

Manfred's growl could be heard very clearly. "Do you and MacGregor want another detention, Bone?"

"No, sir," said Charlie quickly.

Charlie continued to work until it was time to go to bed. He bid Morgan good night before heading up to the empty dorm room for the night.

* * *

However, Morgan had to head up to the senior girls' dorm, which was located quite close to the senior boys' dorm. Asa was behind her as she walked up the stair case. "You walk very softly. Do you walk on tiptoe or something?" said Asa as he looked up at her.

She blinked and looked down at him. "No. I've always walked like this. I tend to sneak up on people and scare them without thinking." She turned back around and pulled her cloak around her a bit more, getting a shiver as she felt his gaze on her intensified.

"Pink is a good color on you, by the by," he said in a lower voice.

Morgan stopped and blinked in confusion. Pink? The only thing pink on her was…

She snapped around and punched him on the chest. "Pervert! You stop looking up my skirt!"

She suddenly felt herself pinned against the wall of the staircase, wrists held down on either side of her head. Asa grinned at her evilly with those yellow eyes. "I think I rather enjoy watching you get angry at me," he said.

Then, he bent his head further and kissed her roughly.

He left up the stairs to the boys' dorm, whistling a little tune. Morgan, however, was leaning against the wall for support as she panted and stared at the opposite wall. Had that really happened?

Morgan mentally slapped herself and wobbled up the stairs, still in a confused daze. What could she have done to stop him? Did she even want to have stopped him?

She sat on her bed and stared at the door. What was happening?

* * *

Saturday morning, Olivia was in town and found a strange flower shop full of white flowers. "Angel Flowers?" It gave her a strange feeling as she looked at it. A beautiful woman came out of the back of the store and smiled at her, her hair as white as the flowers. "Welcome, Olivia. Would you like some flowers?"

"Ah…" Olivia was instantly wary of the woman. How did she know her name? She had been looking for a flower shop to bring her mother an apology gift.

The beautifully white woman smiled at Olivia gently and pulled out a batch of lilies. "How about these? I'm sure your mother would like them," she said gently.

Olivia shook her head as her eyes went wide. "How… how…." She continued to sputter as the woman handed her the flowers.

"They're free. I just hope your mother enjoys them as much as I do," she said with that warm smile.

Olivia back away from the store door with the flowers in her grasp, her heart pounding. The white woman smiled gently at Olivia. "Would you like an apple?"

Olivia didn't answer. She ran as fast as she could away from the store. When she found her mother at home, she gave the flowers to her, a little calmer now that she was away from the white woman. Her mother did indeed love the flowers, however, Olivia still had a horrible feeling something was happening to her that she wasn't all too certain she wanted.

It was then she knew why. She was peeling an apple for herself, but found the peeling never stopped. It kept going without an end to it. She threw the apple away from her, terrified of it.

She tried peeling other apples, but it was the same each time. The peeling never ended. "What do I have to do to have a snack!" she grunted in frustration.

"Olivia? Are you all right?" Her mother came into the sitting room to find her daughter in distress. There were long peelings on the floor and a few apples still attached to them.

"I can't peel any of them!" Olivia whimpered.

"Why don't you just eat them? The peel is good for you," said her mother, trying to cheer her daughter up.

"But I don't LIKE the peel," grunted Olivia. "Where did you get these apples!"

"From the tree in the corner of the back yard," she said brightly. "It's such a lovely tree. It's been there since you were born, maybe even before."

Olivia frowned and tried to peel another apple as her mother walked out. She didn't like how this was turning out.

* * *

Charlie was taken home that night by Mr. MacGregor. Morgan was still in her contemplative daze as she had been the entire day. It was only broken when Asa came around. She would glare at him angrily, that red aura prickling around her dangerously.

Mr. MacGregor didn't like the mood his daughter was in either. Since the previous night, she had been in a constant gloom, cutting herself off from everyone. He'd only seen that happen when she was angry, but she wasn't angry from what he could see, except at Asa Pike.

If Asa had done anything wrong to Morgan, Mr. MacGregor made a vow he would punish the boy repeatedly until he was little more than a shall of himself. The children, including his daughter, had risked a great deal to help the boy before. It wasn't right that the boy would continue to torment her!

Mr. MacGregor looked back at Charlie. "Feeling all right, back there, lad?"

Charlie nodded. "I'm fine, sir."

Mr. MacGregor nodded and pulled into his driveway. "Since we're across the street from each other, I don't think you'll mind if you have to walk to your house," he said with a half smile on his face.

Charlie didn't mind. Mr. MacGregor looked around for anyone watched and grinned at Charlie in a mischevious manner. He lifted up his hands and Charlie's trunk was lifted into the air and then it went right across the street and set itself down in front of Number Nine. "Have a nice night, lad. I hope you have a better weekend than my daughter here seems to be having."

He ruffled Charlie's hair affectionately and sent him off to Number Nine before collecting his daughter and disappearing into Number Thirteen.

Charlie grinned at Mr. MacGregor. He had to be the coolest teacher he'd known so far. The man taunted Dr. Bloor and used his powers in front of everyone when he figured no one was looking.

Charlie looked back at Number Thirteen, watching Morgan's bedroom light go on and saw her flop face down on her bed. He hoped his friend was all right. Then, he walked into Number Nine and went to eat dinner.


	7. Chapter Seven

_**A/N: YAY! I found the complete download of Howl's Moving Castle soundtrack:squeals, giggles:**_

_**I'm listening to it now. XD**_

_**Anywya, thanks to wolfygirl, OliviaVertigo, and everyone else, since I have a notoriously horrible memory for names. **_

_Chapter Seven_

* * *

Charlie walked out of his house at Number Nine Filbert Street to find a strange thing on his doorstep. There was a storybook there, a king in a red cloak sitting on the front cover. He blinked and walked back inside with it in his hands, trotting up the stairs to his Uncle Paton's room. 

He knocked on Paton's door carefully. "Uncle Paton?"

"Come in, Charlie," said Paton's tired voice.

Charlie walked in carefully and held out the book. "Did you drop this, Uncle Paton?"

Paton was sitting at his desk, half awake as he held his head up. "Hmmm?" He took the book and looked over it, waking up a bit more. "No, I've never seen this before," he said, getting very interested in it.

Charlie watched his uncle look through it for a little bit. "It was on the doorstep when I went outside," he said.

Uncle Paton nodded his head as he read through a bit of the book. Charlie would laugh if he didn't find the book so curious himself. He walked out of Paton's room and went back downstairs. He had to go over to the Pets Café to see Runner Bean.

He walked along until he saw Asa standing outside of the Pets Café, head bowed as he leaned against the brick wall of the building beside the café. Charlie blinked at Asa as he went around the boy.

A hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. Charlie looked up at Asa to see the boy staring at him with those wolfish eyes. Asa shook his head slowly and let go of Charlie, looking back at the ground. Charlie frowned and saw Norton. "Runner Bean is waiting for you," he said with a glare at Asa.

Charlie nodded and walked into the café. He saw Lysander with his parrot and Gabriel with his gerbils, Tancred holding a couple in his hands as Ada Isidore giggled, one on her head. Fidelio was there with his deaf cat and Emma was there as well. The only one missing, once again, was Olivia.

"Charlie! Didn't think you were going to show up!" said Lysander holding up one of the gerbils.

Runner Bean ran out from under the table and tackled Charlie. "ARGH!"

A whole manner of shouts and barks and calls went out. Charlie pulled Runner Bean off of him enough to see the table that his friends had been sitting at was over turned. Tancred and Lysander helped right the table as Ada and Gabriel attempted to gather up the gerbils.

"Sorry," said Charlie as he grabbed a hold of Runner Bean's collar and walked over to the counter. He bought a cookie for both him and Runner Bean and walked over to the table where his friends were getting settled down at once again.

Ada giggled as she let the gerbils crawl on her. "They are adorable! I love them!" Charlie saw Gabriel's cheeks go pink as he tried not to look at Ada.

Charlie told them about the book that he'd found on his doorstep as he munched on the cookie he'd bought and fed Runner Bean the other one. "And you have no idea where it came from?" asked Emma as she reached down and picked up a basket with a little white duck in it. She gave the duck a little bit of her crackers and patted it on the head.

Charlie shook his head. "No, I don't." He looked to the duck and then to Emma. "Is that yours?"

Emma nodded. "Yes, she's pretty isn't she?" she giggled, petting the duck.

The entire room darkened then, like a cloud was going overhead and blotting out the sun. Tancred's hair crackled as he looked around. "I don't like this," he said.

Then, everything seemed to go black, though Charlie could still hear everyone around him. There was a crash as something broke through the window and then the sound of something attacking the thing that broke through the window. There was snarling and growling and then a howl as something was hurt. Charlie found himself on the ground, Runner Bean standing over him growling at the fight that was somewhere in the café.

He heard Mr. Omnimous banging a pot, trying to create enough noise to get the animals out of the café. Then, all at once, the fight was over. Something ran off as something seemed to crawl out and then the light returned.

Charlie looked over to Mr. Omnimous standing on top of the counter with a pan in hand, looking around. There was blood on the ground and a trail of it leading outside. Norton was at the door looking in like he couldn't believe what just happened.

Charlie put a leash on Runner Bean and said good bye to his friends, going out to walk Runner Bean and to think as well. What had happened in that café?

Charlie noticed Asa Pike wasn't where he'd seen him before. Asa hardly ever left when Charlie was there, watching him like some sort of hungry animal. A thought struck Charlie. Could Asa have been the one to attack? If that was true, then how? Did it have anything to do with the entire area going pitch black?

* * *

Morgan was watering the flowers in the backyard, trying to get her mind off of what had happened Friday night. Her mother liked to grow things, but Morgan never gained the ability to make things grow like her mother did. She had a peach tree in the corner of the backyard that was just now managing to grow in a somewhat respectful tree. The peaches it grew every year were small, but sweet. 

She walked over to the pansies and blinked down at the grass. She knelt down to get a better look and found blood on the grass, as well as glass. She frowned and followed the trail to a row of bushes. She held the watering can in her hand ready to hit whatever was behind the bushes if it attacked her. "Who's there? Come out, or I'll make you come out!"

She heard something rustle weakly and she walked over cautiously. She put the can down beside her feet and pushed the bushes aside to see behind them. She gasped and jumped back, turning white as her blue widened considerably. "Wha…what?"

Morgan ran inside the house to get her mother. Mrs. MacGregor was watering the plants inside the house when Morgan ran over to her and grabbed her hand. "Mum! You have to help me. Come outside!" Then, she ran out with her mother in tow.

"What is going on, Morgan! You've been acting strange since y'father brought you home from school!" Then, all at once, Mrs. MacGregor went quiet.

Morgan looked to her peach tree. It was holding up a mangled and bloody Asa Pike. He had cuts and bite marks all over him, glass glistened on his ripped clothes and in his hair. He panted as he looked to Morgan and Mrs. MacGregor with those yellow eyes.

Mrs. MacGregor looked from her daughter to the boy and seemed to understand what had her daughter in such a mess lately. She walked over toward the boy. "Morgan, you get the guest room ready, cover the bed in plastic. I'll take the lad inside."

Morgan nodded and ran into the house to do as her mother asked. Mrs. MacGregor put an arm around the boy and put the better of the two arms around her shoulder, watching him wince in pain. "Shhh, calm down lad, I'll be helping you, all right?" she said softly and then walked Asa inside the house.

Morgan saw her mother come into the guest room and helped her put the boy on the plastic covered bed. "I'll need to get some first aid things, Morgan. Make sure he stays still." Then, Mrs. MacGregor walked out.

Asa panted heavily as he looked up at the ceiling blearily. Morgan frowned as she looked to Asa, unsure of what to do. "What happened to you," she asked softly as she sat beside the bed.

Asa coughed and turned his head away from her. Morgan frowned at him. He either had blood going into his lungs, making him unable to speak properly, or he was avoiding the question. Either way, there wouldn't be any time for that. Mrs. MacGregor walked in with her arms full of various things.

"Morgan, I'll need your help," she said.

* * *

Charlie walked Emma to the bookstore. He patted Emma's pet duck on the head before smiling at Emma. "I'll see you tomorrow at school, Em." 

She smiled brightly at Charlie and nodded. Then, she kissed his cheek and disappeared into the store. Charlie blinked at the door dumbly, ears heating up. After a moment of staring at the door, Charlie walked home, hands in his pockets as he walked.

When he turned onto Filbert Street, he heard a cry of pain from Number Thirteen. His gaze snapped up to Morgan's house. He heard yelling, a fight of some sort going on in the house.

Mr. MacGregor had a temper, but he wasn't the sort to abuse his family. He frowned and walked over to the house, knocking on the door. The fighting seemed to stop, the sound of heavy footsteps going down the stairs near the door said Mr. MacGregor was coming to the door. "Eh? Charlie, lad, are you all right?"

Charlie raised an eyebrow. "Mr. MacGregor, what's going on? I heard screaming."

"Nothing you should worry about. M'daughter and I are having a bit of a tiff, but nothing to worry about," he said with a smile.

"AND YOUR WIFE!" growled a woman's voice. Mrs. MacGregor apparently had something to say in whatever matter was going on.

"Dad! You can't just leave a bloke out in the dirt and the sun when he's in this condition!" growled Morgan as she came down the stairs. "He could've bled to death!"

"Not now, Morgan!" growled Mr. MacGregor.

Charlie watched the fight brewing in front of him for a moment. "Who did you find that was bleeding?"

"That bloke Asa Pike. I would've left 'im there to rot, but these two seem to think it's inhumane to do nothing for the ungrateful little whelp," grunted Mr. MacGregor. He gave a sigh and looked to Charlie. "You should go on home, Charlie. Your mum and gran will want you home in time for dinner, right?"

Charlie nodded slowly and walked away, looking over his shoulder at Mr. MacGregor as he waved and closed the door. Charlie walked in and was greeted by Maisie. She sat him down for dinner and he ate his favorite dish of fish and chips. He told her about the strange occurrences at the Pets Café. Then, he told her about what had happened when he went by Morgan's house.

"Oh dear, I do hope that whatever is happening over there, everything will be all right. Mr. and Mrs. MacGregor are such nice people," she said, "But she was right; you can't just leave the boy to bleed to death. That would be going to the level of those awful Bloors."

Charlie frowned and stood up. He walked up the stairs only to find Uncle Paton poking his head out of his door. "I finished the book, Charlie. Thank you for lending it to me," he said as he handed Charlie the book.

Charlie blinked. Had there been nothing of importance in the book? Then, why was it left of their doorstep?

Charlie went into his room and opened the book. He found something interesting between the pages, marking one story in particular. It was a little black pressed flower. It must have been there for a while for it to have lost its color, he thought.

The story it had been marking was one called "_The Story of the Tomb of Mahmet_". Charlie looked at the picture next to it. It was of a woman sitting on a throne, sleeping; ten knights around her also asleep in one circular chamber.

Charlie read the story. He felt like he was drawn toward it. In the story, a man found the tomb through an opening under a tree. Directly under the tree was one chamber where a large bell hung. There was little space to go around it, so he went around carefully. Then, he found the second chamber, a large circular chamber with ten knights and one woman sitting on a throne. She was dressed lavishly, hair like night pulled over one shoulder, a gold circlet on her head holding a multicolored veil on her head.

Well, the man was so taken by the veil and the woman, the man walked right up to the woman and lifted the veil and circlet off and kissed her. She did not move, nor did she seem alive. He would have thought her to be dead if only she didn't look so alive. So, he took the veil and the circlet and walked out, only, the circlet hit the bell on the way through. The woman woke up and looked to the man. "Is it the day?"

The man blinked. The woman had been alive after all. "What day, madame?" he said as he walked further into the room.

The knights woke up then as the woman stood up. "Seize him, for he steals my veil of dreams!"

The man tried to get away, but the knights grabbed a hold of him and took the veil and circlet away from him and tossed him out. Then, the tree seemed to disappear when he turned back to look at it.

Charlie put the book down and lay back on his bed with the flower in his hand, wondering about the story. The book had what looked to be the Red King on it, or what one might have thought the Red King looked like, but the story confused him. Was Mahmet one of the Red King's children? Why hadn't Paton said anything and just given him the book instead?

It may him sleepy just thinking about it. He looked out his window at Number Thirteen and saw the light in a room on the other side of the house. Was that the room Asa Pike was?

So many questions and so little answers. Charlie was making no sense out of any of it. He side and got ready for school the next day and then went to bed.


	8. Chapter Eight

**_A/N: And so we come to a new chapter of Tomb of Mahmet. I want to thank everyone that has reviewed each chapter, most of whom are on the CB board. Thank you._**

_Chapter Eight_

* * *

Charlie woke up in the middle of the night to a strange light flashing through his window. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up and looked in the direction of the light. He saw is coming from the far end bedroom where he had figured Asa was being kept at Number Thirteen. It was like they were having a power outage, except the light wasn't yellowish, but bright white.

Then, all at once the light show stopped. Charlie watched for a little while longer to see if anything else would happen, but he neither heard nor saw anything. He lay back in his bed and was fast asleep quickly.

* * *

Charlie ran to the bus stop as fast as he could. He had a piece of toast in his mouth and his trunk being dragged on the ground behind him. He saw the bus come to a stop and wait for him to get over and put his trunk on before leaving. Charlie looked around, but didn't see Morgan or Asa on the bus. He sat down next to Fidelio with a frown on his face.

"What's wrong, Charlie?" Fidelio asked.

Charlie told him about what had happened when he went home, leaving out the bit where Emma kissed his cheek, as he finished his toast. Fidelio's eyebrows rose as he looked to his friend. "Well, if she and Asa aren't on the bus, then Mr. MacGregor must have taken them with him to the school. He is a teacher, after all," he said. Charlie nodded.

They reached the school and walked out with all of the other blue cloaked students. They were joined by the purple cloaked drama students and the green cloaked art students as they walked through the main entrance. Emma sidled up beside him and smiled at him. "Thank you for walking me home yesterday, Charlie," she said. Charlie blushed faintly and nodded before walking straight toward the blue cloak room as fast as was humanly possible.

The morning run was the best time to talk things out with his friends, something Charlie was grateful for, since he couldn't talk inside the school without getting into some sort of trouble. He rolled up his sleeves and jogged out the door toward where he saw a bit of blonde hair.

However, he ran right into that boy Joshua Tilpin. He was with the red haired girl Rosemary Lace. "Hello, Charlie," he said as he smiled a wide smile that showed off all those crooked teeth.

Charlie felt like he had to smile back, but he just frowned that much more deeply to stop it. He felt something brush his side, but only saw the smile of Rosemary Lace. "Excuse me," he said quickly before jogging ahead.

He stopped to lean against a tree to wait for Fidelio and Emma to show up, as well as Olivia, if she was up to it. He felt something in his pocket and pulled out a black bracelet. In his hand, the thing made him feel cold. He had trouble breathing as his head started to spin. He dropped it on the ground and slid down the side of the tree as he stared at it. He heard someone call his name and looked up in time to see Tancred and Lysander running toward him.

"Charlie! Are you all right?" said Lysander as he knelt down.

Tancred looked down and bent to pick up the black bracelet. Charlie kicked his hand. "Don't touch it!" he cried.

Tancred blinked and looked to Charlie as Lysander helped him up. "It's bewitched, but I don't know what it does," gasped Charlie, starting to feel a bit better since he'd kicked it away from him.

"By the looks of you, I'd say you were close to death. Can you stand, Charlie?" Lysander held Charlie up until wobbled away from him a bit.

Charlie frowned at looked to where he'd kicked the thing away. "The first one was enhanced hearing, the second was like slipping through time itself…Morgan found one that put her to sleep and now one that kills?"

"You're a right target, Charlie," said Tancred as his hair crackled slightly.

"What's going on over here?" asked a shy, but pleasant voice. Corazon De La Cruz appeared, jogging toward them. Both older boys seemed to zero in on one particular part of her that was bouncing, making the girl blush and cross her arms in front of her chest.

Tancred's cheeks went pink as he looked away. "Nothing. Just talking," he said quickly.

Lysander smiled at Corazon. "Don't worry about him, Corazon. He's that way normally. You get used to him."

Charlie watched them as he leaned against the tree again. He was still feeling a bit shakey, his head a bit foggy, but it was all clearing. Corazon picked up the black bracelet. "Oh how pretty!" she said.

"No! Don't put it on!" cried all three boys at once.

They were too late. Corazon dropped to the ground, the bracelet flying away from her. She hadn't put it on, but just holding it was enough. Tancred lifted her up and patted her cheek. "Hey, are you all right? Come on, are you all right?"

Lysander looked around and picked up a rock. "We have to make that thing disappear."

Tancred looked up at Lysander and nodded, the entire area darkening as thunder sounded overhead. Then, out of no where, a flash of lightning cracked down and disappeared, leaving the spot where the black bracelet had been a charred mess.

Lysander smirked at his friend. "Show off," he said.

Corazon mumbled as she slowly began to recover from holding onto the black bracelet. Tancred patted her cheek again. "Hey, wake up…"

When they managed to get Corazon back onto her feet, the hunting horn sounded. Corazon's cheeks darkened considerably when Tancred offered to walk her back to the cloak room and to her first class.

Charlie walked with them back toward the castle as he looked around for any sign of Morgan or Asa, or Fidelio and Emma. When he saw nothing, he walked on to the blue cloak room and found himself face to face with Cathrine Pest.

"Sorry, Pest," he said quickly and grabbed his cloak, starting to feel queasy again.

"Don't pretend you don't make fun of my name, Bone," she said with a tone he hadn't heard her use before. It was both sweet and as hard as stone. "Everyone does. Even little Billy, though who can blame him when his new sister is a disaster."

Charlie grunted. "No one makes fun of your name except Manfred, Pest. Your name is Pest, so that is what I call you."

"Pestilence? Silk called me that as did that blonde boy Tancred." She puffed up and pulled her cloak around her. "All of you think I'm a plague. I suppose I am, then."

Charlie looked to Cathrine with an incredulous expression. However, it didn't last long since she walked out without even letting him say anything. The girl felt like everyone hated her so she hated them back for it with every fiber of her being, whether or not what she saw was true. Once again, Charlie found himself wondering how such a person could ever come to being.

He shook his head and decided trying to figure out someone like her was a hopeless case, walking on to his first lesson.

* * *

Morgan walked outside at break, her hair pulled into pigtails with blue ribbons; something her mother had done that morning for her, wanting her to look cute for her little "boyfriend". Morgan felt her ears heat up. She couldn't like Asa. He was on the other side, he was Manfred's lackey. He would just as soon kill her as look at her, especially if he was in animal form.

However, that hadn't stopped her from helping him when she'd found him in the garden. Her mother helped him until she was sure that he would function normally while he healed the rest of the way.

"Having fun wandering, MacGregor?" said Asa as he looked up at her from his resting spot against the rock ruins of the red castle.

Morgan felt her cheeks burn as she looked to him. "It's none of your business, Pike." She calmed down a little and looked to him. His left arm was in a sling and he had cuts all over him, including bite marks. "How are you feeling?"

Asa narrowed those yellow eyes at her. "What did she do to me?"

"What do you mean?" Morgan looked to Asa with a perplexed expression.

"You know what I mean. I was seriously injured, MacGregor. How am I healed like I have been in the hospital wing for a week?"

Morgan frowned. She didn't tell people about her mother's gift, since it would probably cause people to swarm the house. Her mother had asked her not to say anything a long time ago and people still swarmed their old home.

"You weren't that badly injured, Pike, so stop whining." Morgan pulled her tie a bit, loosening it as she walked away.

Just then, Charlie walked by. He saw Asa and frowned. "What happened to you?"

"None of your business, Bone," he said with a grunt.

Charlie looked to where Asa was staring and saw Morgan walking away. He jogged toward her and put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He found his hand suddenly behind his back with pain shooting through his arm. Morgan blinked at Charlie. "Oh! I'm sorry, Charlie," she said and released him.

"What's the matter? I didn't see you at all this morning," he said, rubbing his wrist.

"Dad took us to school. Stopped by Pike's house first to get his trunk and then went on to school," she said in a clipped tone.

Charlie frowned. She was holding things back, he could tell. He told her about the light he'd seen coming from her house, watching her as she grew pale. "Are you sure you're all right, Morgan?"

"Yeah, 'm fine," she said quickly. "I hae te ge' goin'," her accent coming out quickly, clearly distracted.

She ran away from Charlie and went right past Asa. He walked back the way he came, stopped by Asa. The red haired boy loomed over him, though he didn't look too stable. "What do you want?" Charlie asked him, not entirely certain what to do.

"Are your friends all right?" he said in a lowered voice. He looked around, sniffing slightly at the air.

Charlie frowned at him. He was either up to something, or he was genuinely concerned. Charlie figured it wasn't the latter. "Why?"

Asa gave Charlie a tired glare. Then, he walked off alone, head bowed as though he was already the beast and was sniffing out his prey. Charlie shuddered at the thought. He'd dealt with Asa when he was in beast form and he never wanted a repeat of that incident.

He saw a bunch of apple peelings when he walked out of the forest. He found Olivia trying desperately to peel the apple, but it never seemed to end. "Is everything all right, Olivia?"

Olivia threw the apple down and ran away from Charlie. Charlie blinked at her, watching his friend running away from him. Had he said something wrong?

* * *

The next day, Charlie sat outside Mr. Paltry's practice room. He'd once again been ousted from trumpet practice for being "abysmal". He sighed and leaned his head against the wall. He suddenly looked down the hall when he started hearing a strange tune being played. It was almost out of tune, hurting his ears, but for some reason it made him want to stand up and follow.

He got to his feet and walked toward the tune, violently fighting the urge to run toward it. It sounded like a flute being played, but in such a shrill manner it couldn't possibly be called normal.

He found himself looking at the red haired Mary Dawson, walking out of her practice room. She had a flute in her hand as well as her blue cloak. She looked up at Charlie and grinned at him, bringing the flute to her lips.

Suddenly, everything in Charlie's mind seemed to shatter. The sound was so shrill that it made his ears ring. He let out a yelp of pain and covered his ears with his hands. Then, everything went silent as he felt someone grab a hold of him and lift him up from what he guessed was the floor.

Mary wasn't there anymore. He looked up at Fidelio and blinked. "What happened?"

"I heard you yell and ran out to see what had happened, found you here unconscious," he said as he helped his friend up. Charlie dusted himself off and told Fidelio about Mary and her flute. Fidelio frowned. "I had thought her flute playing was bad, but that just confirms it."

Charlie gave Fidelio a small grin as he rubbed his head. "It looks as though the Bloors are trying to build up their ranks or something," said Charlie, looking to where Mary had been.

"This is getting bad, Charlie. I don't think it's going to get any better, either, any time soon." Fidelio sighed and patted Charlie on the shoulder. "Come on, there's still class time. You can sit in on my violin lesson." Charlie nodded and walked with Fidelio to the practice room and watched his friend practice.


	9. Chapter Nine

_**A/N: sorry for the hiatus. It seems I get into Charlie Bone stuffs again when I get anxious about the next book coming out. : rolls eyes: I CAN'T WAIT!**_

_**But, anyway, I've been a fair bit busy for a while, but hey, I have some cool stuff I've been doing, like more minierik adventures and made myself a few dolls! Edward and Alphonse Elric and my character Astra. I should do Asa and Morgan. XD sorry, had to say that. Probably won't for the fact that it was a minor miracle that I managed to make my Astra doll from scratch and make her look GOOD.**_

_Chapter Nine_

Charlie found himself someplace else. He was dreaming, but he couldn't think of where he was. He was in a large circular chamber and there was a woman with a sheer multicolored veil and gold circlet, black hair shimmering even under the veil. Her dress was lavish, wine colored velvet and shimmering gold. Around her were ten knights, each of them just as sleep as the woman on the throne.

He walked toward the woman, as if in a trance and touched her face through the veil. "Hello?" he asked, his voice echoing.

Eyes snapped open and he jumped back. They were black as pitch and staring straight through him. "The queen of this land is walking around, searching for her mate. He will never rest until the good is set right and the bad made right. His home was split in two, but he still loves his family, hoping forever that the one will bring the two halves together and make it whole."

Charlie blinked and her eyes slipped closed again, a song filtering into the chamber from the ten knights, a sound so sad that Charlie felt like his heart was dying in his chest, breaking completely in half. Then, the knights quieted down and the woman sang in a voice so clear, it was as if she were an angel rather than an earthbound woman.

_"I can see them up there_

_I can see him_

_He's watching us all and crying_

_And red and gold the leaves are_

_The red of the blood is there"_

Charlie listened and looked at the woman, whose face seemed to never change, barely moving as she sang. Charlie backed away and found himself flying, a strange, small, fluttering object not far from the side of his vision. It was a small, white moth with silver tipped wings. He touched it and woke up.

He found himself in his bed in the boys' dorm. On his hand was a white moth with silver tipped wings. He blinked at it and realized what it was. It was his wand, taken a new form. He wondered how, if it had been burned up, it had taken another form.

He decided that thinking was not called for when his brain felt numb with sleep and let the moth go onto his bedside table before rolling over and going back to sleep.

* * *

During the morning run later that morning, Charlie found his friends and told them about his dream. Morgan blinked. "That song sounds kina familiar," she said, Fidelio nodded. 

Charlie blinked at them. "What do you mean?"

"We've been playing it for one of the plays that's going to occur in winter," said Fidelio.

"You are?" asked Charlie, very interested now.

"Song of the Red King," said Morgan, scratching her nose.

"Mary can't play in it on account that it drives her mad," said Fidelio.

Mary Dawson's nasty look toward Charlie that day when she made him go unconscious suddenly went into his brain. To him, the song was sad, but somehow heartening. To Mary, who was very clearly with the Bloors, it was maddening, horrible to their ears.

Charlie could have leapt for joy. Uncle Paton would want to know about another part of the song they had found out about. It somehow made sense that the Bloors couldn't stand the song, maybe it could be used against them to keep them away if any one of them needed to keep the Bloors away.

Charlie spotted Billy running back inside, Catherine Pest walking behind him. He had a feeling he found a way to get Billy to get out of the Pest home when he'd found it. He also wondered if he could borrow Mr. Omnimous' three cats, Sagittarius, Aries and Leo. They too made the Bloors and anyone connected to them keep away from them with their warm purring sound alone.

It was then that Asa Pike could be seen not that far off, skulking behind the trees. Charlie watched him as he seemed to disappear, arm in sling.

"Get moving," said the gruff tone of Manfred from the other side of the group. Morgan grunted indignantly and walked off. Fidelio and Emma sighed and followed Charlie into the woods.

* * *

Morgan went into the ruins, ducking into the archway and down to the fountain. For some reason, she liked the place, though she couldn't place why. She stopped when she heard someone shift their position in the chamber with the fountain. "Hello?" 

Asa was sitting on the floor, knees up and arm resting on a knee as he looked up at her with wolfish yellow eyes. "Hello, Morgan."

"I told you not to call me Morgan," she said with less venom than she had wanted.

"It's your name," he said softly.

Morgan shifted slightly on her feet, wondering what she should do. She didn't want him asking her about her mother and she didn't want him to come near her. If he did, he might kiss her again, or touch her and make her brain stop working. She was so confused about what she thought of him, that she couldn't make heads or tails of it all.

However, Asa's soft tenor shot through her thoughts. "What did your mum do to me?"

Morgan blushed and moved back toward the exit. Asa shot to his feet and snatched her wrist. Morgan reacted and threw him, or tried to. His hand stayed and brought her down on top of him, rolling her underneath him. He pulled his arm out of the sling and used it to bring her other wrist up and under his good hand to hold her down. "What… did your mother… do to me, MacGregor," he ground out, panting slightly as he gazed down at her with hard eyes.

Morgan struggled and Asa shoved his hips into hers, holding her down with the rest of his body. "Tell me!" he growled.

Morgan gasped and struggled harder, digging her phantom nails into his arm. He gritted his teeth and growled animalistically.

Then, all at once, she felt his mouth covering hers, kissing her roughly. Without thinking, she welcomed his kiss and stopped struggling, her mind lost.

Asa lifted his head away from Morgan and gazed down at her with almost amber colored eyes, darker with something Morgan had never seen before. "What… did your mum do to me? Why did you help me?"

"My… my mother… she's a nurse, u-used to be one. She can… can heal people by… transferring her energy into the injured person," said Morgan, her mouth going without her consent. Why was she telling him this? "I…we… didn't want you to die."

Asa stared at Morgan for another moment, her body tingling oddly wherever it was held down by his. Then, he kissed her again, gentler this time. She finally bucked and shoved him off slightly. "Let me go!"

Asa blinked at her blearily as he got up and then growled at her. "Who would like a stupid girl like you," he snarled. Then, he stalked out, foul mood setting in. Morgan sat up and rubbed her face. What was happening to her?

* * *

That night, in the King's Room, Charlie noticed something significantly different between Asa and Morgan. He was glaring at her and she was shyly looking at her notes. They were snarling mutually like they usually did, but he was in a bad mood and she was shy. 

"Pike, do your homework, or do you want to spend another year here after this one?" said Manfred with a sly smirk.

Asa glared at him. "Stuff it, Bloor," he said with a growl and went back to his work.

"Detention, Pike," grunted Manfred.

Morgan blushed and looked to Asa. She suddenly jumped out of her chair, holding a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Asa had also looked surprised, but then started to glare at her even more. "Don't give me that innocent act, MacGregor!" he growled.

Morgan shot up to her feet. "It was an accident!"

"Detention, MacGregor!" growled Manfred. "Sit down, BOTH of you!"

Morgan sat down angrily and started working again.

When it was time to leave for bed, Morgan went out right after Joshua, Mary and Rosemary, quickly gathering her things to get as far away from Asa as possible. Charlie looked to Emma and she shrugged, uncertain of what to say about it.

There was the sound of a body hitting the ground out in the hallway, books hitting the stairs and something falling down the stairs. Charlie ran out with Emma, Tancred and Lysander behind them.

Morgan was at the bottom of the steps, spread eagled and bruised. Her head was bleeding and blood tried to ooze out of her mouth. Charlie started to run down when he was shoved out of the way by Asa. Charlie managed to get down to Morgan just in time to watch Asa lift her top half up off the ground and brace her against him, using his good hand to pat her cheek. "Morgan, wake up."

Her eyes were unfocused, open and staring into nothing. Charlie noticed she had a braided bracelet on her left wrist that was gray. "She's pretty badly hurt, she needs to get to the infirmary," he said as he reached for the bracelet.

Asa pulled his bad arm out of the sling and winced as he lifted Morgan off the ground and into his arms. Charlie blinked at Asa, looking to Tancred and Lysander in confusion.

Lysander spoke first. "Pike, let us take her, you're wounded."

Asa glared at them dangerously, fangs beginning to form in his mouth. "Leave me alone," he snarled and walked slowly away.

Charlie looked to Tancred and Lysaner in confusion. Corazon and Ada appeared behind them with Gabriel. "What was that about?" asked Gabriel.

Corazon blushed darkly as she looked at Tancred and Ada lowered her gaze to the stairs. Emma was the only one looking at Charlie. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the infirmary, seeing Asa in there, panting and sweating, his bad arm bleeding where he was wounded and sitting down beside Morgan's bed.

Emma nudged Charlie. "She has one of those bracelets you told me about, Charlie," she said softly.

Charlie nodded and walked into the infirmary to Morgan's bed. "We have to take off that bracelet," he mumbled, uncertain how to act around Asa now.

Asa glowered at Charlie, looking like a wolf protecting his territory. Charlie edged around the bed and reached down to take off the bracelet. He felt a wave of unconsciousness hit his brain as soon as he touched it. He backed away and stared at Morgan. Her eyes were closed now. He figured Asa must have closed them for her. She was barely breathing. It was as though she was in limbo between life and death and unmoving.

For the first time in a while, Charlie felt helpless. He couldn't touch the bracelet to get it off of his friend, and his friend was facing death as he watched her. He walked out wobbling slightly from the revelation, Emma catching him. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I… need to get to bed," he said and moved away from her quickly. He didn't know how to feel. He and his friends had always been able to stick it out and come up with a way to help someone out from the clutches of the Bloors, but now it seemed like it was impossible to pull Morgan away from them now.

He sat on his bed heavily and stared at his hands, the moth fluttering down onto his right hand to sit with its wings spread. "What can I do?"

* * *

Manfred Bloor watched from the doorway as his former comrade sat staring at the MacGregor girl. When Mr. MacGregor caught wind that his daughter had fallen down the stairs and she was unconscious, he would throw a fit and he was there for damage control. He was losing his powers, but he could still intimidate. 

However, intimidating Mr. MacGregor was about as useful as trying to calm a wild bull. What was needed was a scapegoat and Asa was there, ripe for the slaughter. Mr. MacGregor hated him and the Bloors would finally be rid of another nuisance.

He heard Mr. MacGregor storming down the hall and moved to hide. He found no hiding place, so he decided to leave and find someplace more plausible for an alibi for him to be.

* * *

Asa Pike sat staring at the prone form of Morgan. He heard the stomping footsteps of Mr. MacGregor, but he didn't move. He couldn't. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't, but he knew he couldn't. It was confusing. 

"PIKE!" snarled Mr. MacGregor at the doorway.

Asa stood up slowly, but didn't turn. Mr. MacGregor growled and lifted his hands. Asa flew across the room and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Blood shot from his mouth on impact. He slid down and then felt those large hands lifted him up again and throw him across the room once more. "I told you and Bloor that if you hurt my daughter, I would show no mercy!" Mr. MacGregor snarled.

Asa coughed up more blood as he slid down the wall beside Morgan's bed. He shook as he looked to her hand, the one with the bracelet on it. He reached for it as he felt Mr. MacGregor's hands on him again and grabbed the bracelet. It slipped off as unconsciousness slipped over him. However, he dropped the bracelet in mid-flight and felt the impact of the wall against his back. He hit the ground, pain everywhere in his body. He was vaguely aware of Morgan's shriek, shouting angrily at her father and the sound of a fight starting.

Then, everything went black…


	10. Chapter Ten

_**A/N: I'm everywhere and Everything! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!**_

_**achem Anyway, like I said, I'm anxious about book five of CB coming out, so I'm going on a CB rampage. . ;**_

_**Also, I'm listening to The Last Samurai soundtrack which is VERY good for this. XD Like when the music swells, that was when Asa picked up Morgan and told Charlie to get away from him. When the music got sad, Mr. MacGregor was kicking Asa's ass.**_

_Chapter Ten_

Charlie heard the commotion downstairs. He heard the shriek and a fight going on. He didn't care if he was given detention; he wanted to know what was happening!

Charlie walked to the door and listened for the Matron, his awful aunt. When he didn't hear her, he crept down the stairs and went straight to the infirmary, where the noise was going on.

However, nothing could have prepared him for the image of Morgan and her father glaring at each other and the image of blood splattered on the walls. He caught sight of a foot and ran over to it, bypassing Morgan and her father. Morgan turned and saw Charlie, running after him.

Asa was out cold, his pulse thready. Blood dribbled from his mouth and his breathing was almost nonexistent. He looked pale and had blood coming from his head and bruises as well as scrapes everywhere.

"He'd hurt you again! I don't know why you defend this little creep!" growled Mr. MacGregor.

"DAD!" Morgan touched and prodded Asa, but there was no response. Charlie looked to Morgan and then to Mr. MacGregor, just in time to see Manfred appear. "MacGregor, Bone, you're out of bed. Get back to bed. The nurse will take care of Pike," he said, his tone almost gleeful.

Morgan growled and then looked pleadingly to her father. For the first time since Charlie arrived in the room, Mr. MacGregor's expression took on a softer tone. He saw the look and knew what it meant, though Charlie could only guess.

"I'm going to go home tonight. Tell your father that I'll be back on time for breakfast," he said.

Manfred narrowed his eyes and left. Morgan looked down at Asa and then to Charlie, tears in her eyes. Charlie frowned and shook his head. "Don't cry. You got one of those weird bracelets on you and fell down the stairs. He'll be all right. He tried to help you."

"You children get to bed. I'll deal with this little pup," said Mr. MacGregor as he picked up Asa in his strong arms. "Go on, or the little whelp outside the door will charge you while I'm out."

There was a shuffling sound outside in the hallway that let Charlie know Mr. MacGregor had been right about Manfred being outside still. Charlie sighed and pulled Morgan out. She went up the staircase for the senior dormitories and he went up to the boys' dorm. Outside, he heard the front doors open and shut and saw the vague image of Mr. MacGregor walking out with Asa in his arms.

True to his word, Mr. MacGregor was there bright and early for breakfast. Morgan, however, was still half asleep, miserable looking and staring at her food. Fidelio looked to Charlie and raised his eyes brows. He too had heard the commotion and saw Charlie go out, but had needed to stay to make sure the Matron didn't get too suspicious about Charlie being out.

Charlie looked around and didn't see Asa anywhere. Had Mr. MacGregor left Asa with Mrs. MacGregor all night and now he was going to be with her all day? Charlie wondered if Mrs. MacGregor was endowed and if it was a strange sort of healing she did. The light show was still fresh in his mind and Morgan's pleading look still hung on his brain. Was that why Asa was still about?

During the morning run, however, Charlie's mind was still asking questions. He found Fidelio and Emma and tried to get Olivia into it, but she just jogged off on her own. Charlie told the pair about the night before, about Morgan and her father fighting and Asa looking a broken mess.

"I think you're right, Charlie. Morgan's mum must be a healer of some sort and Morgan wanted to make sure the nurse here didn't have a chance to finish 'im off," said Fidelio as he scratched the back of his head.

Emma nodded. "I agree."

Silence hung among the friends. A glimpse of Olivia gave Fidelio a determined look. "What's going on with Livy?"

"I heard Manfred tried to give her detention because he tripped on this apple that she'd been peeling, or actually, the peel itself," said Emma. "It was five meters long and getting longer!"

Charlie blinked. "Longer?"

Emma nodded and looked to where their friend had disappeared to. Charlie needed to talk to Olivia, but every time he tried, she'd just tell him to go away and run.

* * *

It had been a couple of days and Asa was still gone. Asa didn't actually have any friends that would miss him and the teachers could care less. Mr. Ebony even snorted and said "Good riddance" when told about his disappearance. Charlie suddenly started to sympathize with the creepy older boy. He only had the Bloors and the people that stayed around them. He didn't have anything other than his family and Charlie didn't know about them. 

That is, until there was Morgan MacGregor. Those two she spent in solitary confinement, or her own anyway. Charlie hardly ever saw her around and when he did, he saw only misery and guilt.

Friday had Charlie going to the buses with Fidelio. He hadn't received a detention, so he didn't have to stay at the horrible school like Morgan did. She had a detention to fill even if Asa wasn't there to serve his time.

However, Morgan seemed to just take it. In the King's Room, that night, it was just her and Manfred. Manfred watched her carefully from the end of the table, doing grade work and other such tasks.

Morgan was sitting not far from him and doing her homework. Of all the girls at the school, Morgan was the most infuriating of them all. When she and the two girls Ada and Corazon had made officially named the Troublesome Trio because Ada was hard to keep under control and Corazon had her troubles as well. Morgan was the one that Manfred had the most difficulty with. In fact, it had been a minor miracle that he had managed to put her under that one day.

However, there was certain brilliance to Morgan that attracted everyone to her; a sort of quiet will power to be herself no matter what, even at the expense of having to deal with him. Mr. MacGregor had the same sort of strange brilliance and it angered Manfred that the man continued to disobey his father and grandfather. Mr. MacGregor could do whatever he pleased and if he was told to stay put and be quiet, he would only be that much louder and gregarious.

Morgan had that in her and it outshined the twins considerably, who had a certain mystery about them that intrigued people. Even Joshua Tilpin had problems trying to get her to do what he wanted.

Just then, the doors opened and Asa Pike stood there in the doorway, looking at Morgan and Manfred. His face was bruised, but healing, blood had been cleaned away and his arm was back in a sling. His shirt was open half way, however, causing Morgan to blush. There were bandages around his chest and ribcage that could be seen through the opening in the shirt.

"Welcome back, Pike," grunted Manfred. "Sit and do your homework."

"Actually," said Morgan pointing to her watch, "It's time for bed, sir."

Manfred blinked and then growled faintly, leaning back in his chair. "Fine, go to bed, both of you."

Morgan blushed and picked up her things, walking out past Asa. Walking down the stairs, she heard a faint conversation between Asa and Manfred, so she stopped and listened.

"Back so soon? I would have thought MacGregor would have killed you," said Manfred.

"He almost did," said Asa, anger evident in his voice.

"Too bad he didn't finish it," snapped Manfred.

"Why have you and everyone made me a target? I know I screwed up the experiment, but so did you!" snarled Asa.

"Want another Saturday detention, Pike?" said Manfred smugly. "What do you want? To be let back in on what's going on?"

"Yeah… yeah I do."

Morgan felt her heart stop. Asa wanted to deal with Manfred and the Bloors some more WITH them? How could he after what they'd let happen to him and what they actually DID to him!

"Fine. Give MacGregor hell and make him quit and maybe we'll consider it. Until then, keep on your toes." Manfred's tone clearly said "no more", so the shuffling of Asa could be heard coming to the doorway. Morgan looked to the stairs, gripping her bookbag in a death grip.

They were going to make her father quit so she would have to go away too? Asa wanted to join the Bloors! HOW COULD HE!

Her body trembled as Asa appeared at the top of the stairs and walked down slowly. "Morgan?" he asked softly.

Morgan felt hot tears going down her cheeks. This was war! This wasn't a game! They were declaring WAR on people's lives and Asa wanted to join THEIR side!

She felt a couple of fingers brush her cheek and she bit him. "OW!" He snapped his jaws at her in response and she growled.

"Get away from me… Don't you EVER try to talk to me or my friends EVER, Asa PIKE!" she snarled and ran off.

She felt as though her heart were ripped in two and stomped on! She couldn't handle it, so she went up to her bed and just collapsed on it, burying her face into her pillow.

* * *

Saturday evening, Charlie looked out his window to see Morgan walking out of the car and into her own home. All that day, Charlie had wondered what was going on and wished desperately that he could have been at the school to see what had given her such a hard expression. 

He looked to the moth and stroked one of its wings before looking woefully to his homework. If he didn't finish, he was going to get detention for certain and get bad grades on everything.

* * *

Charlie found himself in the chamber once more, looking about at the woman on the throne and the ten knights around her. He touched her nose through the veil and watched as her eyes opened to look directly, intently, at him. Once again, the chorus of knights sang and as they sang, Charlie both felt light and warm as well as deeply saddened, his heart swelling as well as breaking. 

Then, all went silent and the woman sang in a clear voice.

_"Five took the castle,_

_Five he left behind_

_The story lives on_

_The story never ends_

_In the woods you can see him_

_In the woods you can feel him"_

Charlie listened to it and wondered what it meant. Was this another verse of The Song of the Red King? It sounded like it.

Then, all at once, she stopped singing, the song unconcluded. He reached to touch her face when she grabbed his wrist.

"The one you seek is right under your nose, boy. He has always been there; you have just been too weak to seek him! Beware the black spider that weaves her web around you!"

Then, she let go of him and her eyes closed. Charlie reached to touch her veil again and he felt something hot burn him. He saw Manfred burning the wand and the little moth fly away from the flames, coming from the ash. The burning sensation when away and an image of Asa lying on a bed with a window above his bed frame could be seen.

Mrs. MacGregor walked in and sat down, patting his hand. "Don't worry, dear, you're safe with me," she said in a soft tone.

Then, she brought her hands out and a strange light filled the room. She reached her hands down and touched his chest and suddenly the light flickered, electricity sparking where she touched Asa. Charlie could feel it in the very air, something magical was happening and the toll it took on Mrs. MacGregor was obvious. She looked tired when she took her hands away from Asa and there was blood coming from her mouth. She wiped it away and then stood up, covering Asa in a blanket before walking out.

Charlie looked at Asa on the bed and saw him look peaceful, sleeping with his face in the half moonlight. He didn't look like he was going to hurt anyone, he looked like he was just asleep from the rigors of the day.

Then, Charlie woke up, shutting off his alarm clock.


	11. Chapter Eleven

**_A/N: The Power of SOUND: sings: god, I think I'm in love with this blasted song. Lol This is what I get for poking around the flash section of 4chan. By the by, NEVER go to 4chan unless you're basically unphased by a lot of stuff like porn and the like. -.-;; can't tell you how often I see something that is just basically disgusting and that's just in the thumbnail! I sometimes lose the thumbnail and end up clicking on something that would make most people want to hurl their computer through the window._**

**_Anyway, poor Asa got his ass kicked once again. lol_**

**_Oh and if you want to know what to listen to while reading this, listen to Omna Magni from Genesis of Aquarion. It's super creepy. XD_**

_Chapter Eleven_

* * *

Emma blinked at Charlie's story about his dreams. "What do you think it means?" she asked as she fed her pet duck. They were out at the park and resting on a bench together from walking Runner Bean. "Er, I mean the chamber, not Morgan's mum. She seems to be some sort of healer."

Charlie finished his cookie and stood up, Runner Bean very ready to run and play. Runner Bean was getting tired of just doing not much of anything while the girl was around, though he liked the girl a lot. She was one of Charlie's friends, and Charlie was a friend of his friend Benjamin Brown, so therefore, she was his friend.

Even the duck.

Charlie patted Runner Bean on the head and looked to something moving not far off. He caught a glimpse of red hair and frowned. Was it Asa Pike back to skulking around, or was it something else?

Then, he saw something headed for him. It was small and looked like a clockwork soldier. Emma blinked at it. Charlie picked it up and inspected it. There was a note attached to it.

_Black is white and white is black,_

_White is nice and shining,_

_Black is angry and dark,_

_But both can not exist without the other._

_Where there is one, there is the other._

_Where there is light there is dark._

_Where there is hope, there is despair._

_Where there is joy, there is anger._

_Where there is courage, there is fear._

_Can you tell the difference between the two?_

Charlie blinked at the note. It was more like a poem than it was an actual note. Who would send something like this to him on a clockwork toy? The toy walked away on it's own after Emma played with the key in its back. It disappeared underneath some bushes and that was the last they saw of it.

Charlie looked to the note again and saw something else, though it made little sense.

_That which is white and that which is black,_

_That which is sweet and that which is angry,_

_That which shines and that which takes away the light,_

_Be careful of that which shines,_

_Be careful of that which takes away light,_

_Both take and give what is needed to survive,_

_As well as take away that which is wanted._

_Which is the way to go?_

"What does that mean?" asked Emma, uncertain of the meaning herself as she looked at the poem. "I would much prefer being in the light than in the dark. The dark doesn't let you see what's coming toward you or if you're someplace good or bad."

"But some people prefer the dark to the light, because they can't see what is there so they can pretend it isn't," said Charlie as he thought about it. "I prefer the light too. At least I can see what I'm doing and where I'm going."

"Enjoying yourselves, children?" asked a sweet voice behind them. A tall woman dressed in all white smiled kindly down at them. "Would you like a flower, miss?"

Emma blinked and nodded, taking the flower and looking at it. "Thank you, ma'am."

Charlie blinked at the woman. She wasn't just dressed in white, she even had white hair and perfectly pale skin. She gazed at Charlie with light blue eyes and smiled. "You can call me Miss Angel."

Charlie nodded. "Miss Angel…. Do you sell flowers?" he said indicating the strange white flower that she had given Emma.

Miss Angel smiled and nodded. "Angel Flowers is my shop."

Charlie nodded and Miss Angel gave him a flower as well. "What's this for?"

"For your mother. She will like that flower I believe," said Miss Angel.

Runner Bean wagged his tail and barked happily at Miss Angel. Charlie decided that if Runner Bean liked her, then she wasn't a bad person. However, Miss Angel looked around and frowned. "I must leave. Could you give this apple to your friend Olivia for me? Tell her she can't deny herself any longer," she said softly. Charlie took the apple and watched Miss Angel walk off quickly.

Emma sniffed her flower and looked to Charlie. "They're so pretty!" she giggled. Charlie blushed and looked to the apple to avoid looking at Emma. Lately, he'd been getting nervous around her a lot and feeling his stomach do flips when she smiled at him; which was a lot since she liked to smile.

Charlie walked Runner Bean back to the Café and let Mr. and Mrs. Omnimous take him in. "Thank you, Charlie. He really does look forward to you coming," said Mrs. Omnimous. However, as Charlie walked out, a policeman walked up to the door and looked in on them. Mr. Omnimous grunted as Charlie looked to him. "What's wrong?" he asked.

The Policeman frowned. "Just make sure that this place stays quiet, Mr. Omnimous, or we'll be forced to have you shut down your enterprise." Then, he walked on.

Charlie widened his eyes and looked to Mr. Omnimous. Mr. Omnimous sighed. "The Loom brothers came in with their dogs and made a mess of the place shortly after you took Runner Bean out. We managed to shoo the dogs out with Norton's help, but the police came because someone complained about the noise."

Charlie frowned and nodded, walking out of the café. He saw Olivia and ran after her. "Hey! Olivia! Wait!"

She ran away as fast as she could, but he managed to catch up with her. He held out the apple, huffing in order to breathe. "Miss… Angel… wanted you…. to have… this," he gasped.

Olivia looked the apple as though it might bite her and ran off. "NO!"

Charlie sighed and leaned against the wall, tired of running. That was when he heard someone coming toward him. A flash of red hair made him straighten up, but all he saw was a bracelet on the ground. He walked over carefully and picked it up. He felt nothing when he held it. He put it on and frowned. Again, nothing happened.

Was this one just a fallen friendship bracelet from some girl? If so, how many red heads were in this town? The only ones he could really count were Asa, Mary Dawson and Rosemary Lace. There were a few others, but he didn't know them by name.

He put his hands into his pockets and started to walk off when he heard something behind him in the alleyway that he'd run into to chase Olivia. There, in the shadows, stood Asa Pike in regular clothes, a jacket, T-shirt and jeans and trainers. He looked to Charlie with those wolfish eyes and stared intently at him.

"What do you want, Asa?" asked Charlie, curious what Asa was doing. He'd seen how Asa reacted to Morgan, but was never truly certain if Asa was good or bad.

Asa walked forward and Charlie flinched, ready to bolt if he had to. However, he never had the chance to move. Asa seemed to be in front of him the moment he twitched and had him by his shirt front, lifting him off the ground. Asa slammed Charlie against the brick wall, not actually looking him in the eye anymore. It was as though Asa was afraid to look him in the eye, like people did when Manfred was around. "Trust what you will, Bone, but in the end, you will have to be the one."

Charlie tried to pry Asa's hands off of him and nearly succeeded when Asa knocked his head against the wall behind him again. Charlie saw stars and kicked at Asa's stomach. Asa loosened his grip, eyes tearing up in pain, but he snarled and punched Charlie on the jaw.

Charlie hit the ground and coughed. His head hurt and his cheek hurt worse. His entire head felt like it was expanding, even though it wasn't. He started to get up, but Asa picked him up by the shirt front again. "I have to do this," he said, once again not looking him in the eye. Then, Charlie found himself slamming against the brick wall of the alleyway once more, his body starting to hurt where he made contact with the wall and the ground.

He stayed awake long enough to hear two sets of footsteps walk away from him, one with the almost loping feel of an animal and the other with a more predatory feel to the sound. Someone else had been in the alleyway with him!

However, Charlie closed his eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

Charlie felt a soft surface under him. He heard someone talking and felt something stinging his face. He hissed and tried to strike away whatever was making his face hurt again.

"Charlie, you're awake!" gasped Emma's voice. He opened his eyes somewhat to see her looking down at him with worry etching into every part of her face.

"Charlie!" Uncle Paton suddenly came into view and patted him on the face. "What happened to you?"

"Asa Pike… tossed me around," he said, though his mouth still hurt.

Emma put a hand up to her mouth and gasped. Uncle Paton looked furious. "That insolent, ungrateful little brat did this to you? I knew he was nothing but trouble," he growled, the lights in the next room flickering and something popped that sounded like a light bulb.

"Paton!" cried Miss Ingledew as she rushed in.

Paton looked apologetically at her. "Sorry, lost my temper," he said. Miss Ingledew nodded and looked to Charlie.

Emma went back to swiping Charlie's cuts with what seemed to be disinfectant and apologized when he hissed from his face stinging. The wheels in his head were turning as he tried to think about what happened in the alleyway. Someone else was in the alley and that someone had Asa hurting him. Whoever it was, Asa was afraid of him.

Charlie walked home with Uncle Paton, getting a scared greeting from his mother who had been called when Emma had found Charlie lying in the alleyway next to Miss Ingledew's shop. Charlie hadn't noticed he had run to the bookstore in his attempt to chase Olivia. Uncle Paton told him that Miss Ingledew had called his home and Uncle Paton had come to get him, though the sun was barely beginning to set.

Maisie gave Charlie a look over and fixed whatever Emma hadn't been able to wrap properly. In the end, Charlie simply went up to his room and crashed on his bed. He looked across at Number Thirteen and saw Morgan's light was on in her room. She was sitting on her bed, knees drawn up and she was wiping her eyes. Charlie frowned. Why was she crying? She had looked depressed when she'd been brought home by her dad, but now she was crying.

Charlie couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and went to sleep, listening to the flutter of the moth as it flew across the room and landed on his bedside table, wings spread.

* * *

He was in the room again, looking across it at ten knights and one lady all sitting in gilded chairs. The woman was peering at him through her multicolored veil with dark eyes. She opened her mouth and started singing that strange song about the Red King.

Then, the song stopped and she stood up. "Beware that which is black. It takes away that which is good and keeps it locked away for its own amusement. Be careful who you trust."

Then, Charlie found himself listening to a strange purring sound, getting louder and filling him with a strange warmth throughout his aching body. In the morning, Charlie found that his wounds no longer hurt, though he was still scratched up. He also found a name in his head he somewhat recognized, but couldn't remember where from.

Mahmet.


	12. Chapter Twelve

_**A/N: And here we go with another chapter. I have had the worst week in the history of me. I've had to participate in cleaning out a freezer that died three weeks ago, but it was left to thaw out and rot for two weeks. We have part of the entrails in the garbage can and siphoned out about six gallons of toxic sewage water from the bottom of that freezer into the sink. Then, I got to clean the entire area with chlorox about three times until I was satisfied I'd killed everything. Then, we had to clean out the rest of the junk for the guys coming to bring us the new freezer to take away.**_

_**I suggest burning it and burying the ashes somewhere close to the magma layer of the earth's interior, someplace where it will never show up ever again. Imagine the world's worst smells and shove them together and then let them ferment in the sun for three weeks. That was what we were pulling out and sticking our heads into.**_

_**Urgh, I'm glad we have the new freezer.**_

_Chapter Twelve_

* * *

Charlie went to school on the bus with Fidelio and Morgan. Morgan seemed quieter than she should have been and her eyes were puffy and red, jaw clenched and looking out the window forlornly. Fidelio looked to Charlie with a frown. Both she and Olivia were acting abnormal and Olivia's abnormal behavior was beginning to make Fidelio a little worried.

However, that seemed to change when Morgan looked over at Charlie. "What the hell happened to you!" she gasped.

Charlie told her and Fidelio about Asa Pike and the attack, leaving in a good portion of the details. Morgan looked like she was going to eat someone alive. "That horrible, dirty, ASS!" she growled. "I heard him! I heard him tell Manfred that he was going to be his little lackey from now on."

Charlie wasn't too surprised, but the absolute misery and anger etched into Morgan's face made him frown. He wasn't too certain what was going on between her and Asa, actually he did, but he really didn't want to think about Asa getting a girlfriend, but he knew for sure that Asa seemed as though he was changing for the better, which had been throwing off the Bloors and their side of things. With Asa back on their side made things back to where they had been, with the Bloors side getting stronger with the more forces they had. Mary Dawson, Rosemary Lace, Joshua Tilpin, the Branko twins and Catherine Pest were all aiding the Bloors.

Fidelio spotted Emma and grinned at Charlie when she came up to him and hugged him tightly. "Are you feeling any better, Charlie? You had us worried!" she said.

Charlie blushed and shot Fidelio a glare before nodded and prying Emma's arms from around his neck. Morgan looked like she would burst laughing if she opened her mouth. She sniggered and walked off as Fidelio went off with her. Olivia ran right into his chest and fell down.

"Careful, Livy, don't want you getting hurt," he said with a grin. Olivia went pink and straightened her cloak.

Charlie smiled at Olivia, though she didn't return it. "Are you okay?" she asked. She'd apparently been told about the attack as well. He nodded and she smiled faintly. "Good! I'm glad!" Then, she hurried off, still looking as down as ever.

Charlie sighed and looked to Fidelio. Fidelio shrugged and they walked into the school.

* * *

The King's Room was eerily silent, Charlie starting to feel bad as was Morgan and Emma. He looked to Gabriel and he looked as though he was going to throw up. Tancred grinned at Charlie strangely as Joshua grinned at him. The Branko twins were gazing at Morgan like they were waiting for the signal for an attack on their hated enemy.

Asa, on the other hand, was gazing at Morgan with a strange expression. Charlie couldn't quite figure out if he was thinking, as his gaze was incredibly shadowed and guarded. Morgan sneezed and coughed, sounding like she was coming down with a cold of some sort. She groaned and put her head on the table, covering her head with her arms.

"Something the matter, Miss MacGregor?" said Manfred without looking up.

"Don' feel good," she mumbled.

"Get your work done and I'll let you out," he said with an amused smirk.

Charlie clenched his fists around his pencil. He wanted to scrape that smirk right off his face. He was tired of the Bloors getting the advantage. Morgan pulled out a Kleenex and blew her nose before trying to write again. However, her pen kept being moved by itself. She frowned as she looked at the message the pen wrote on her paper.

"If you keep doing that, Ideth, Inez, I will be forced to hurt you severely," said Morgan through her teeth.

"Detention," said Manfred.

Asa twitched slightly as he gazed at Morgan. Morgan started to write again and her pen went off on its own again. Asa twitched again and Morgan yelped in pain, holding her shin. Manfred looked at Asa for a moment and frowned. "Detention, Pike. No kicking," he said as he gazed at him through his eyelashes suspiciously.

Asa frowned and looked to his work. Morgan looked to him with wide blue eyes for a moment before looking to her work.

When the time to go to bed came, Charlie found himself almost running to get away from the feeling of being sick with Pest there. He nearly ran into Billy, who looked as though a part of his soul were leaving right then and there. Charlie stopped and looked to Billy. "Billy, are you all right?" 

Billy looked down away from Charlie and shook his head. His cheeks were sunken slightly and his eyes had dark circles under them from lack of sleep. What was it that Billy was going through at the Pest household that was making look so terrible? Surely Catherine Pest's family controlled their powers so that they didn't make each other sick, right?

Catherine came close and Billy scampered away. She sneered at Charlie and walked off. Charlie grunted and rubbed his stomach before heading to the boys' dorm.

* * *

Morgan coughed as she walked toward the stair case to the senior girls' dorms. She suddenly felt a strange pull in the air and she flew backward. The force that she hit the wall behind her was enough to knock the wind from her. She slid down and hit the floor face forward. She coughed and started to lift herself up when a desk in the hallway moved straight for her. She just managed to make it move away with a hand up to deflect it.

She sat up and looked around with a shuddering breath. Where were the twins?

A table against the wall flew at her and rammed her against the wall again. She held it off with her hands, but not enough to keep a small flow of blood flowing down the back of her head and down her neck. She breathed slowly and looked around before shoving the table off and throwing it. The table broke against the wall as she stood up.

"Iiiiiideeeeeeeeeth," she said in a low voice, her nose bleeding slightly. "Ineeeeeeez…. Come out and play, since you seem to want to so much," she said in a soft taunting voice.

There was a growl in the darkened hallway. She looked to the source and stared right into a pair of yellow eyes. Except the face was not an animal, but human. Asa moved out of the shadows at a speed she could barely comprehend. He tackled her to the ground and fought her hands, pushing them to the ground.

A set of footsteps came out of the darkness, one limping slightly. Morgan gasped as she shoved against Asa, trying to get a hold with her powers, but unable since Asa had interlocked their fingers and held them above her head. He panted slightly as he gazed down at her through his eyelashes, his eyes more animal like than ever.

"There's only room enough for the two of us, MacGregor, no other telekenisis users," said one of the two girls.

"Therefore, you are only redundant," said the other.

The one on the right held a large book and held it over Morgan's face and took her hands away from it. It stayed suspended in the air as Asa leaned back slightly, her hands freed slightly, but still confined. Was it just her or was his thumb rubbing against her wrist, the more sensitive part of it?

The girls grinned eerily as one as the book dropped.

Morgan's eyes widened for a split second and she yelped. Suddenly, the book veered off and hit one of the two in the stomach. That one flew backward and then hit the ground. Morgan found that even with her fingers and hands confined, she could still use her powers, she could feel the book in her hands even if they were pressed into the rock floor. She grinned and looked up at the twin left. "Ideth or Inez?"

The girl looked at her with wide blue eyes. "Ah…"

"Doesn't matter," she grinned and the book flew right into the girl's face, throwing her backwards.

Mogran laughed. She couldn't help it. Her powers had grown in that one moment! However, she still had Asa above her and the feel of the book was still in her hands. She made it hover over his head as he moved over her to get in her face. "Don't try it," he muttered almost against her mouth.

She gasped at how close he was to her. His animal like eyes gazed at her with a strange intensity. She stared into them fearfully, the book faltering over the both of them. "Get… let go of me, Pike," she said.

Asa let out a low growl, the stars shining outside through the window. He seemed to shift slightly, his form not really there. His form went into that of a great gray beast and shifted back into his human form as he held her there.

Morgan's heartbeat accelerated as she watched. What was he planning?

Then, he moved away slightly, smirking down at her, yellow eyes glowing slightly in the half light. She blinked and started to move, but he still held her hands immobile. "Asa…. Let me go, please," she said without thinking about calling him formally.

Asa swooped down and she gasped as she felt teeth sink into her neck. She yelped in surprise and tried to move him off of her. However, there was a strange feeling against her skin, the teeth lightening on her skin. She moaned as felt a strange suction feeling on her skin, her heart skipping beats. She writhed under Asa for a few more moments before he licked her skin and up to her mouth where he kissed her. Morgan's senses were erratic and dulled all at once. She gazed up at Asa in a haze as he moved off of her and walked away out the doors to the outside. She moved her head to look at him only to see him look at her and then become a beast that ran away into the night.

Morgan stayed put for a few moments before getting up and walking to the dorms, rubbing her neck.

* * *

"What the hell is that!" gasped one of the girls next to Charlie.

Charlie looked up to see Morgan sit down at breakfast with them, her shirt unbuttoned at the top button and tie still undone. On her neck was a large bite mark and then an area of red, bruised skin. Charlie stared at it. "Did something… bite you?"

Morgan blinked and turned red. "Er…. Yeah, but how do you know?"

"You haven't looked in the mirror," said a girl next to Morgan.

Morgan blinked and took the proffered mirror from the girl. Morgan went more than red, she looked as though she was going to faint right there as well as kill something. She hurriedly gave the girl the mirror and buttoned the collar and tied her tie. It managed to cover most of the strange bruise and bite mark.

Charlie continued to stare at it. After a moment, he realized the bite mark was human and that someone biting her probably meant someone used to biting people, Asa Pike. As he looked at the mark on her neck, he also realized that if Asa bit her, the bruise was what he'd seen on the telly as a hickey.

The thought grossed him out. Asa had gone back to the semi-romantic version of himself again it seemed, because him kissing her neck would only mean he was trying to make her his girlfriend again.

Once again, Charlie gagged at the thought.

What crazy girl would like that freak!

Only Morgan seemed to like him and she wasn't necessarily insane. When she became enraged, she could seem like she lost her mind, but otherwise, she was eerily **sane**.

Charlie grunted and looked to Billy sitting next to Mary Dawson and Catherine Pest. Billy looked the worse for wear, but otherwise all right. He sighed. It was taking forever to figure a way to get Billy out of the awful home. First they still had no idea where Pest lived, and second, the Pests seemed quite keen on keeping their whereabouts well hidden.

Emma had even gone so far as to fly overhead of the bus and follow Pest and Billy home, but lost track of them along the way. Poor Emma had to find a way to get her clothes back before going home. Things were not going the way they had hoped. The only left for them was to try following Billy home again, only this time, directly instead of overhead.

With that in mind, Charlie went to work thinking out how they were going to accomplish that feat.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**_A/N: Sorry for the massively late update, everyone. I've been doing various other things. . At least you get more, ne?_**

**_Oh man, I love writing Asa and Morgan together. :3 haha, especially that hot little hickey number. XD Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I listen to Le Portrait de Petite Cossette soundtrack as well as E Nomine and various other things to get into the mood. :3 so be happy._**

**_E NOMINE IS ONE OF THE BEST BANDS EVER! LISTEN TO THEM! I BEG OF YOU!_**

_Chapter Thirteen_

* * *

Charlie nodded to Fidelio and Gabriel. Charlie kept Emma's clothes for her in his trunk, so she was sitting on top of the bus waiting for it to move. Billy and Catherine got on the bus together and sat down. Fidelio moved over to the seat in front of the one where Billy and Catherine were, grinning over the top of the seat at Billy. "Hello, Billy! How are you doing, eh?"

Catherine glared angrily at Fidelio as Billy sort of shrank away. Fidelio continued to grin at Billy. "Oi, I was wondering, would you like to come over to my house tomorrow?"

Billy looked to Catherine and she shook her head. "**We** are going to be with mum and dad all day."

Fidelio shrugged and walked back to Charlie's seat. Gabriel got up and walked over to the seat in front of the pair and sat down. Then, he pulled out a book and started reading. Catherine tensed when Gabriel came over, but along the ride, she relaxed when he didn't budge or look up from his book. He had the seat all to himself, so she figured he was there so he could get some quiet to read.

When his stop came up, Charlie got off and walked to his house with his trunk in tow. When he got to Number Nine Filbert Street, he sprinted up the stairs and put his trunk away, stuffing his book bag with Emma's clothes and running out. "I'll be back in a little bit!" he called out before Maisie could stop him and ask him about his time at school. He sprinted across lawns and through shortcuts between houses, going through bushes and vaulting over shrubs as he came to wait for the bus to let off a large load of students on Taligate Road.

By then, the entire back of the bus would be empty except for Fidelio, because all the children last on the bus stayed in the back, normally. He saw the bus come into view and stop, letting off a group of children. He snuck out of a bush and onto the back of the bus, sneaking into the seat behind Fidelio. The bus started up again and went up hill toward the harder to get at houses like Fidelio's.

It seemed to take forever. Charlie was getting cramped in his position on the seat at the very back. His bag carefully held against his body, his long legs tucked against his chest and feet planted firmly on the seat against Fidelio's back so he wouldn't fall or make a noise when the bus made a stop.

Fidelio had to get off then, nodding to Charlie. Charlie lifted himself just enough to see him wink at him from outside. Charlie ducked down again and waited for the bus to start again. When it did, Charlie had a harder time keeping himself in his seat without Fidelio to give him something to push against. He felt bad about doing that to Fidelio, but it was necessary.

Gabriel's book bag dropped and part of the contents spilled out. He picked it up hurriedly, Billy getting down to the floor to help Gabriel out. Catherine pulled him back up into the seat and snarled before Gabriel got back into his seat with his bag.

Gabriel got off and then the bus went on. Charlie watched as the bus went into a heavily wooded area. No wonder Emma had trouble following. The trees overhead made it almost impossible to see through. Even if they weren't on a blue bus, it would be easy to lose the trail.

They stopped in a neighborhood where the houses were far apart, past the Heights and into the country. Charlie began wondering how he was going to get home as he watched the houses go by. He saw the bus was coming to a stop and clutched his bag to his chest and pushed against the back of the seat in front of him.

Billy and Catherine got off the bus and Charlie got out the back of the bus and darted into a bush. Billy and Catherine walked along a dirt driveway to a large house that sat ominously on a hill. Charlie watched as the bus drove off and he darted to another bush to keep them in sight.

Charlie looked up to see no bird in sight. That meant Emma got lost again. He'd have to find some way to get her to find the place, though the part where the house was wasn't hidden from the sky by trees. He wondered if there was something he could make explode when he saw the white moth with silver tipped wings, his wand. Maybe if he thought about it, he could use it to make something explode into the air like a flare.

They walked into the house at the top of the hill as he pulled out the light blue bracelet he'd found that one day. Time seemed to stop as they walked in. He ran past them into the house and hid in an upstairs room that looked like it was Billy's before taking the bracelet off. He hid in the closet as he listened to the steps up the stairs and Catherine calling out to her parents. "Mum! Dad! We're home!"

"Good. Get him to his room," said a deep, male voice from downstairs. Charlie hadn't stopped to look for the parents, and they would surely be home by now. In fact, the sudden thought made him afraid.

Billy was thrust into the room and the door slammed shut and locked tight. Billy sighed and went to his bed and sat down, pushing his trunk against the foot of it. Charlie waited for a little while in Billy's closet, not sure when he should come out. He sat with his stomach starting to growl when he heard Catherine called down for dinner. The door opened and a tray of meatloaf was put onto the dresser and the door locked up again.

Billy took the tray and smiled. Charlie smiled as well; at least they fed him well. Maybe it was because they had a daughter that would probably object to having something undesirable. However, Charlie's smile disappeared when he realized food was an imperative and pulled out as quietly as possible the bit of food cook had given him before he'd gone to classes earlier that day. He munched silently as he continued to wait.

When nightfall came, Billy was let out to brush his teeth and do other things. Charlie almost had a heart attack when he saw a thinly built woman walk in, freckles across her cheeks and long brown hair like Catherine. She straightened the room and Charlie started feeling uneasy. Something about her eyes, her eyes glowed when she turned his way with an eerie red light. She walked out and closed the door.

Billy came in a little bit later and the door locked on its own. Billy went into his bed and turned his lamp out, sighing. Charlie shuddered in the closet as he remembered the burning coals in that woman's head. It was like looking into hell itself!

Then, Charlie opened the closet carefully and closed it silently. He tip toed over to Billy and leaned over him, covering his mouth with his hand and putting his finger to his lips. Billy gasped and shoved at him before Charlie realized he didn't have his glasses on. Charlie snatched Billy's glasses up and put them on him before smiling weakly. "Come on, I've got a way out of here," he whispered. "Get dressed."  
Billy blinked at Charlie. "What are you doing here, Charlie!" he whispered, red eyes big behind his glasses.

Charlie sighed. "I'm taking you out of this place. Gabriel's got a place set up for you for a while in the shed, just until we can get you to a better place, but that's the meeting place for us. Now come on!"

Billy nodded with a grin and got dressed quickly until they heard someone coming up the stairs. "Billy," said a soft female voice. Charlie was instantly afraid. It was the mother.

Billy was scared out of his wits as well. He was frozen to the spot, looking to Charlie for an answer to the situation. Charlie pulled a shirt over his head and pushed his jacket at him before grabbed Billy's shoes and going to the window. He opened the window and panted as he looked to Billy, motioning him over. He pulled the light blue bracelet out and untied the ends so that it was one long string and then wrapped it around his hand and Billy's. Time stopped for them right then, or so they hoped. Charlie pulled Billy out the window only to have a horrible burning feeling on his hand as Billy yelped in pain. Mrs. Pest was at the door glaring at them with those eerie eyes. Charlie looked down and saw that the bracelet had turned to ash and his hand was burned where the string had been.

Charlie yanked Billy out the window and they slid down the roof and fell onto the ground in a heap. Charlie shoved Billy's shoes on his feet and pulled him down the hill at top speed. The trees and grass around him lit up in flames as they made their way down the hill. Charlie pulled Billy into the trees and to the road. Charlie felt a strange sensation of not being tired or hungry, his body moving without any pain from his lungs. He found himself running very fast, the countryside passing by him as though he were in a car. He heard a warm purring sound on all sides of him and saw Aries, Sagittarius and Leo running beside them.

They ran right into the Heights, right past Loom Villa where the gates opened and four large black dogs ran out and snarled at them. Charlie kept a firm hold of Billy and practically dragged him along as the sound of a car coming down the road sounded. The wind whipped around them as they kept running, the Flames continuously giving Billy reassuring mews and growls.

However, flames erupted in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. The Flames surrounded the two boys as they turned to see Mrs. Pest smiling at them. Mr. Pest was behind her, medium built and sickly looking, though he seemed healthy enough in the car. "Billy, you shouldn't run away from us," she said them. Those burning coals for eyes settled on Charlie and he felt as though the very air around him was burning.

The sky was growing darker and Charlie heard thunder crack in the sky, lightning sparking through the clouds. Mrs. Pest growled and looked up into the sky as rain started coming down. When it hit her, steam rose from her body, the sound of water sizzling against her skin. She growled as the fire around them went out.

Charlie dragged Billy away again, running down the road again. Mrs. Pest backed away as the car went headlong after them. Just then, lightning crashed down and the car burst into flames, getting put out by the rain. Mrs. Pest's screams could be heard as she ran to the car. "WILLIAM!"

* * *

Mrs. Bone woke up to the sound of a phone ringing. She had been so worried about Charlie disappearing the way he had, that she had stayed by the phone in the sitting room and fell asleep. She picked up the phone quickly and put it to her ear. "Charlie?"

Charlie's voice came out clear enough. "Sorry about leaving the way I did, mum, but I had to do something. Billy, you remember Billy right?"

"Yes… yes I see," she said.

"Billy was locked up in the Pest home for a while, the Pests aren't a nice bunch, they fed him all right, it looks like, but both Mr. Pest and his daughter used strange sickness powers, or whatever, on him and Mrs. Pest! She's a fire starter!" Charlie continued to ramble until he didn't have anything left to say. "I'm at the Silk house, mum, Mr. Silk tells me he'll take me home later, but I need to be here for a while."

"Yes, thank you," said Mrs. Bone. "Goodbye."

"Goodbye," said Charlie and then hung up.

"Who was that?" grunted Grandma Bone from upstairs.

"Cleaners. They destroyed my favorite blouse. I guess I'll have to find another," said Mrs. Bone.

"Cleaners? How rude to call now at this time in the morning," she grunted and went back into her room with a snap of her door.

Mrs. Bone smiled faintly before pulling up a pillow and hugging it. "Be careful, Charlie," she muttered to no one.

* * *

Morgan looked out the window to the sky above. It was so stormy out that it made it difficult to sleep. The rain would have put her to sleep like a drug, but the thunder and the sound of the windows rattling made it difficult to do so.

She looked down at the ground at a gray beast padding across the ground in the rain with something shiny in his mouth. "What are you doing, Asa?" she muttered.

She sighed and lay down again, rubbing her neck. What was Asa doing?


	14. Chapter Fourteen

**_A/N: once I get into it, I go all out, now don't I? XD Man, talk about screwing up the series. I pulled the idea of Billy's escape and made it my own. By the by, I'll be takin' a character I made up out of the series in the next one. My three boys are watching me from atop my teddy bear. (My boys are my Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric and Erik the Phantom dolls that I have, Ed and Al I made. Ed's got my HP character Astra doll on his lap though. She keeps ending up there for some reason. O.o And Al keeps ending up under me when I wake up. Weird stuff. My friend Amanda says he has a crush on me. XD Aww, Al's so sweet. I think he's actually trying beg me to make him a girlfriend.)_**

**_Also, my mp3 player is acting like it's freakin' possessed! O.o what the hell is going on with this thing! It started playing Mitternaucht really slow and the guy's voice was like that of the devil!_**

**_I've only had this thing for four months and now it's acting like something's possessing it. ARGH!_**

_Chapter Fourteen_

* * *

"Could you pass me the toast, Gabe?"

"Oi, oi, oi, don't eat all the bacon, mate!"

"Oh calm down, Sander." CRUNCH!

"Where are we going to hide Billy, Charlie?" Gabriel put down his bacon and looked to Charlie who was looking out the window as he nibbled on his toast.

Charlie looked over and blinked. Him? Where did**he **think of hiding Billy? Why were they asking him this? "Er… I was hoping one of you would come up with something."

Gabriel grunted and rolled his eyes before smiling and patting a gerbil cage. Billy seemed happy enough talking to the gerbils.

"I said don't eat all the bacon, Tanc!" Lysander whacked Tancred on the shoulder just as the blonde haired boy down the last piece.

"Ow!" Tancred grunted and a small gust blew through, causing all the gerbils to squeak at once.

"Ow! Stop doing that, Tancred! There are too many here! I can't hear anything!" cried Billy as he put his hands over his ears.

While Gabriel grilled Billy on what the gerbils were saying, Charlie looked out the window. It'd been several hours since they'd come to the gerbil house and nothing had happened. Mrs. Pest would surely be looking to lash out at the boys for hurting her husband and taking away their charge, not to mention Catherine would be just as angry.

Just then, a pair of hot coals for eyes came up right in front of his face. Charlie yelped and flew backward, running into Tancred. Tancred looked up and shouted something before flying into Lysander and all of them ran out of the gerbil house, dragging Gabriel, who was yelling about his gerbils.

Mrs. Pest narrowed her eyes at the group and a fire sprang up all around them. "How dare you harm my defenseless husband? How dare you take away our new son," she snarled.

"Defenseless!" cried Charlie. "How could he be defensless. Didn't he and Catherine use some sickness power on him while he was there!"

"My husband isn't endowed…. But the son of one who is. Just shows how little you observe, Mr. Bone," said Mrs. Pest with a horrible grin, those coals for eyes glaring right into his.

Then, the sound of drums sounded. Tancred was glaring angrily at Mrs. Pest, the wind picking up again around them making the fire spread toward Gabriel's house. "Tancred! Stop! My house!" cried Gabriel before smacking the boy on the arm. Tancred didn't budge, but let the wind die down.

The sound of drums grew louder. Lysander was gazing at Mrs. Pest coldly as spirits of men with spears and swords appeared menacingly around him. Mrs. Pest frowned and more fire burst to life as she glared at the spirits.

"Mum!"

Mrs. Pest was nearly bowled over by Catherine half tackling her mother and clinging to her. "Mum! Please stop!"

Mrs. Pest blinked and the red glare died down as she gazed down dazedly at her daughter. Catherine was crying into her chest, trembling slightly. "Please… please stop. I don't want you to get hurt too!"

Charlie watched in absolute amazement as the most loving expression crossed Mrs. Pest's face as she looked down at her crying daughter and then hugged her. "Shhhh let's go see daddy, all right?"

Catherine hiccupped and nodded, clinging to her mother as the fires died away and they walked away through the yard and out to the road. Lysander smiled faintly and nodded to his ancestors. "Thank you, I'm sorry for the false alarm."

They nodded and disappeared, the drums fading away. Charlie looked to Billy and smiled. "Well, now all we have to do is hide you someplace where they can't find you."

Billy smiled and the other boys laughed the whole thing off, going into the gerbil house to retrieve their fallen breakfast and take the dishes inside.

* * *

Morgan put books up in the library. There was still time before she had to get ready to leave. Her sinuses were getting better and she didn't apparently have a cold, but a very big problem with something in the air. She sighed and put a book away and yawned. Too bad watching Asa roam around in beast form rather suspiciously kept her up until very late.

She felt a little strange suddenly, as though she was being watched. She looked around and found nothing. However, the strange uneasiness remained.

"Problem, MacGregor?"

Manfred. Morgan grunted and rolled her eyes. "No, there is no problem, but I would appreciate it if you didn't sit there and stare at me, you're bloody creepy," she grunted in irritation.

"Want another detention?" said Manfred, eyeing her disdainfully.

"No," she said and put a book up.

"I want you to do something for me," he said softly.

Morgan frowned and looked ahead. "What."

"Tell me, what has he been doing as of late? He's been very secretive," he said in a rather persuasive tone.

Morgan found it hard to resist telling him anything. "I don't know, he's been acting weird and keeps trying to kiss me. I don't like it though," she said as she put the last book away, but didn't turn around.

"Trying to kiss you? His tastes have fallen," said Manfred with a snort.

Morgan grunted, clenching her fists. "What do you mean, Mr. Bloor?"

"I mean he had such a good prospect with Zelda's friend. She seemed to like him a great deal, but he, being the dunderhead he is, didn't notice."

Morgan felt her powers twitch slightly, like electricity flowing through her. "Really? Then, if he had such a good prospect, why didn't you shove him at her and tell him to maul her like you did to Zelda Dobinski? I'm sure he would've noticed then," she said, her voice getting cold, but not raising in volume.

Manfred growled and glared at Morgan's back. "Turn around and say that to me."

"Like I'm that stupid, Bloor. Get away from me this instant before that desk behind you starts crashing into your head," she growled, a strange red aura starting to spark to life around her.

Manfred eyed her carefully. He heard the desk behind him twitch and ran out of there quickly, yelping surprise. Morgan let out her breath and turned around. Manfred was long gone by now, probably sprinting to his room to cuddle with his pillow and whimper about wanting his mother.

She tugged at the ribbons in her hair and pulled her hair loose, looking at the colored ribbons coldly. "Why do I bother?" she muttered and walked out of the library.

* * *

Gabriel waved to Charlie as they walked up to Tancred's home. They went up the hill past a sign that read THUNDER HOUSE before going up even more to the Torrson home. "This should be the safest place around for Billy to be, Charlie," said Tancred.

Charlie nodded and looked to Billy. "Go on, it's a little odd at first, but you get used to it."

Tancred grunted as his hair sparked. Charlie blushed faintly and shrugged, "Sorry, Tancred." Tancred waved him off and pulled little Billy inside like a kidnapper.

Then, Charlie went down the road where Mr. Silk was waiting and got into Mr. Silk's car. This was going to be hard to explain to his grandmother Jones. Mrs. Bone was easier, but Maisie was the devoted grandmother and worried constantly about Charlie at the school. Charlie didn't want to be there in the first place, but he was accepting the fact that he was there slowly.

When they stopped in front of Charlie's house, Mr. Silk turned and smiled at Charlie. "This whole thing has been so inspiring. Thank you, Charlie," he said, "Now go on in, I'm sure your family is worried sick about you."

Charlie smiled and nodded and got out of the car. They still had not seen Emma all the while. It unnerved Charlie to think that she didn't even show up to one of the boys houses….

Charlie realized that he still had her clothes. If she did get lost, she wouldn't have flown to one of the boys' homes, but either gone home or gone to Olivia's. Charlie blushed scarlet and looked in the bag. Sure enough, the offending garments were in there, including a pair of pale green panties. Pale green?

Charlie almost fainted. He shoved the panties into the bag and closed it, though he had to wrestle with the zipper to do it. Surely she could wear UNDERWEAR when she transformed, she didn't go home in starkers! Right!

"Get inside!" Charlie was dragged in by Grandma Bone and set down in front of his three horrible aunts. "What were you doing out like that?" she said with a scowl.

"I forgot to tell mum and gran that I was going to Gabriel's to sleep over," he said.

"Now, Charlie, you shouldn't tell such nasty lies," said Venetia, though she didn't look quite so together as she used to, her iron claw in the velvet glove routine came out just as stunningly.

"I'm not lying," said Charlie.

"Charlie! There you are!" Maisie came swooping in and pulled Charlie into the kitchen before The Aunts and Grandma Bone could have another word out of him.

Quite frankly, Charlie was relieved. Maisie whapped him on the head, however and put her hands on her hips. "You shouldn't leave like that without saying a word! You nearly scared me to death!" she cried in hushed tones. "Thankfully, you remembered to call."

Charlie apologized as Maisie set a plate down for him and gave him lunch. Not long after, the aunts and Grandma Bone left out the door. Charlie chose then to fill Maisie in on everything. "Oh dear dear, I hope that boy will be all right," she said.

Charlie smiled and continued to eat his lunch until it was gone. Then, he went up to his room and laid down for a nap. He was more than tired and went to sleep immediately

* * *

He saw the moth fly over him, beckoning him to follow it. He did so and followed it down the stairs to the front door. Was this a dream? He found himself in front of the old walnut tree in front of the house and looked to the moth. His wand.

The moth fluttered around the tree to the other side and Charlie followed it. An entrance was there where there had been nothing but tree before. Charlie frowned and followed the moth inside. He walked down the tunnel under the tree and found himself inside a large chamber where a bell was hung. A very**large** bell.

The moth fluttered through the gap and Charlie had to squeeze by going sideways. The bell didn't move, thankfully, though it was a bit rusted. He found another tunnel and followed the moth through it as well.

What he saw next could barely be described. He was in a large round chamber with ten knights all around it, gold and jewels everywhere. However, at the very back, as he followed, was a woman wearing a multicolored veil over her face and a gold circlet holding it in place. "He…hello?" His voice echoed in the chamber.

The woman's eyes opened, black as her hair, and peered at him through the rainbow veil. "Hello?" he said again as he walked closer to her.

"Welcome, Charlie," she said in a soft voice, "to my tomb."


	15. Chapter Fifteen

**_A/N: hahaha I left ya'll with a cliffhanger. XD Okay, so we're gettin' good here, ne? XD glad ya'll enjoy this stuff so much._**

**_Mmmmm naruto music._**

**_Oh God, I have seen the bane of humanity. The freak fringe of the Harry/Hermione ship. Normally, I wouldn't give a damn except these people are completely insane and really quite annoyingly loud. They screamed at us H/G shippers for our ship having so little "evidence" to our side and that it was all based on faith. Yeah, we said it was based on evidence we've seen so far and a great deal on faith on how things would turn out and in the writer._**

**_But really, we weren't that concerned except when challenged ruthlessly by the freak fringe. If it came out their way in the books, we'd take it as canon and go on living._**

**_When Book six came out, there were a half a billion screams of outrage and uncontrollable sobbing from the freak fringe. Then, they proceeded to say things like "JKR Messed everything up, it should've gone this way" or "I hate JKR! I'm never reading HP ever again!" To which everyone shouted as one entity "SHUT UP!"_**

**_I say this because I found a petition banning book seven because of the way their ship is sinking so horribly. And I just wrote a petition banning the petition against book seven and the freak fringe themselves. If it goes through, I'm gonna laugh and post it up everywhere I can._**

**_I can be so cruel sometimes. laughs

* * *

_**

**_Chapter Fifteen

* * *

_**

"What?"

Charlie couldn't believe what he was hearing AND seeing. He just stared dumbfounded at the woman in the veil still wearing his pajamas with the moth fluttering around his head. Somehow, right then, he wanted to squash the moth before it made him either dizzy or got him into trouble.

The woman, however, never answered his query. He frowned and straightened his pajama shirt. "You… your tomb? If it's a tomb, why are you alive?"

"I am Mahmet. I am the carrier of the veil of dreams," she said softly. "You have need of something?"

"Mahmet?" Now Charlie was really afraid. That was the same name as in the book he'd read with the Red King on the front. It was also the same woman he'd continually seen in his dreams for the past several weeks. "Are you… one of the children of the Red King?"

She didn't move, just stared at him with those unearthly black eyes. Charlie was getting tired of being in front of this woman who didn't answer him when he asked a question. What was the point of him coming down there?

"I am," she said finally. The knights started to stir, making Charlie nervous as he looked around at the fearsome swords and battle axes at their sides. "What dream will you have me weave for you?"

"It's not dreams I want. I want to know why you've been summoning me," said Charlie uncertainly.

"My tomb holds the dreams of those that have need of them. What dream will you have me weave for you?" Her eyes continued to gaze unblinkingly at him, making his eyes hurt from leaving his eyes open for so long. He shook his head and headed toward the door. The knights stood up and two barred the way out for him. "You will have a dream of mine, Charlie Bone."

Charlie looked over his shoulder slowly, eyes wide in terror. Mahmet raised her hand as she stood up and walked slowly toward him. It was as though she was a doll that had loose strings, as though the image of her non-aging form was merely a façade and her body was being held together with little more than tissue clinging desperately to bone.

Charlie started to look for another way out, but he couldn't find one. Then, he felt her hand grab his shoulder and hold him fast to the spot. The colored veil slipped over him and held him against her. Soon, everything seemed to go black as her black curls filtered over his face along with the veil. She was leaning down over him and kissed the top of his head, his consciousness finally giving.

* * *

Fire raged through the school. Screams as Charlie had never heard before caused him to put his hands over his ears. What was happening!

He watched as someone grabbed Emma and twisted her neck like a chicken. He watched as some big black creature rampaged through the children and grabbed Fidelio, tossing him to the side and then bit into Olivia. He yelled and tried to move, but found himself rooted to the spot.

Morgan ran over, yelling angrily as the fire mixed with the strange red aura that surrounded her. She threw a gigantic rock at the beast, which looked like a wolf rather than a hayena like Asa tended to look, and the beast dodged it. It ran at her and pinned her before a figure came out of the smoke, long dark hair streaming in the wind. He looked like a demonic shadow, or like a thinner version of Borlath.

"STOP!" cried Charlie, but his voice didn't seem to go anywhere other than his head. The beast turned into a human man, though Charlie couldn't tell how old he was. He could only tell that he was muscular and naked, holding down Morgan as Manfred came closer, dragging the limp form of Billy Raven.

He threw Billy down in disgust before looking to Morgan. "It seems the only one left of the troublesome trio is defeated. You are a strong girl, I think we'll keep you as a breeding mare, of sorts," said Manfred, grinning terribly.

There was a snarl and a great grey beast launched into the man holding Morgan. Asa Pike growled and tore at the black beast until smoke filled the area and all Charlie could hear was a yelping of one of them losing.

Manfred grinned down at Morgan, holding her by the wrists with his long fingers. "Now, I think I have just the man you can belong to," he said.

Charlie snarled and tried to move again, crying out as pain gripped his shoulder. His friends were being killed and made into slaves right in front of him and he couldn't do anything about it!

Suddenly, Charlie was yanked out of wherever he had been and tossed into his own body. He looked around and found the moth fluttering wildly above him. He saw the knights and then Mahmet. Panting, he scrambled to his feet. "What was that!"

"Possibility," she said. She pulled the veil back over her lovely face and sat back down again.

Charlie growled and ran toward the throne. Knights held him back and tosses him toward the entrance. "WAIT! I need to know why it happened!"

Mahmet gazed at him with her icey features. Somehow, right then, she looked oddly familiar. "Possibility of what could happen and nothing more. Take care, Charlie Bone."

* * *

Charlie gasped as he bolted straight up in his bed. He looked wildly around, but found no trae of his ever being inside the great chestnut tree in front of his house. He groaned and laid back down after what felt like an exhausting search. He looked at his clock and grumbled. It was time to get ready for school.

When he got to school, he ran right into Manfred. "Watch where you're going, Bone," growled Manfred.

"Sorry, Ma..sir." Charlie still had trouble thinking of Manfred as anything other than a fellow student. It was unnerving.

Billy wasn't at school. He supposed he was still at THUNDER HOUSE weathering out the weather-monger, Tancred's father. Tancred's mother was far easier to deal with, though.

He found Tancred and got a wink from him during break. The great escape had worked and Tancred's family was now taking care of the meek Billy Raven. He saw Olivia long enough to see the tread on her sneakers as she ran off down the hall. He was able to be around Emma and Fidelio, however.

Joshua Tilpin continued to try to get near Charlie, starting to bring in Dorcas Loom and various others. The only one that seemed to keep away from both groups was Asa Pike. Charlie knew that Asa was on the side of the Bloors by default, but he couldn't quite understand the feeling that Asa was having difficulty being on their side. He seemed as though something was eating at him inside.

Morgan also continued to look like something ate at her inside. She smiled at Charlie, though, when he walked over to her to greet her. "It was the same as it always is, Charlie," she said as she straightened her tie, "There isn't much you can do when you are surrounded by the Bloors, right?"

Charlie knew that feeling, but he also knew better. Morgan didn't get detention as often as Charlie, though she almost did get as much as him. She looked over to Asa and walked away quickly. Charlie frowned and looked to Asa. He had something in his hands that was shiny and hidden in a long, beat up box. Was Asa planning on giving some other girl something that would probably look completely awful once again? Charlie almost gagged when he remembered the image of Asa at the doorstep of his Aunt Venetia as he waited to bring some goofy goodies to the one known as "Belle". Thankfully, the horror didn't go on much longer and "Belle" died, courtesy of his Uncle Paton frying her like bacon.

In the end, he really didn't care much for trying to figure out dating and the like. It was sort of embarrassing to think of a girl in that fashion, much less being near her without giggling about the whole thing. Asa got to his feet and walked off with his hands buried deep in his pockets. Charlie sighed and went off to jog.


End file.
